Unseen and Undone
by NeroMustDie15
Summary: In the midst of the quest to save Cocoon, Lightning goes to the Mah,habara caves with Fang to investigate a wierd finding. She gets sucked into a different dimension with her feelings for Fang growing at the second. Lightning also begins to question her sanity and their fate. R/R Please! Flight.
1. A Weird Finding

Demons, Crazy Preachers, and All That Mumbo Jumbo

Chapter One

Lightning and the group had been on Gran Pulse for a couple of weeks, or at least, that's how long they'd thought it had been. With no prior knowledge of the planet, except for the old legends and myths, they didn't have any idea where to begin. Lightning being the leader of the rag tag group of people proposed a plan. The plan was to scout out the area and find out as much info as possible. Where the water sources were, possibly edible plants, Local wildlife, that kind of stuff. Well, in the midst of their investigation, Lightning had stumbled on something in the Ma'habara network of caves. She hadn't told any of her other group mates, deciding that it would be better if she went alone. She didn't want anyone tagging along, namely Snow, that would get in her way.

"Where you headed off to, Sis?" Snow said being his nosy self. Thinking he had to keep tabs on everybody to 'protect' them.

"How many times have I got to tell you? I'm not your sister." Lightning said. She hoped she'd eventually break Snow of this habit. But it didn't seem like it was happening anytime soon. Perhaps she could coax him out of it. _Maybe a Thundaga up the ass will convince him._ Oh, how she wished she could. But she knew the dumb oaf needed to remain unharmed. For Serah's sake.

"So, where ya headed, sunshine?" Fang said in a suspicious tone. The lance-wielding huntress was weary about where Lightning was headed. Knowing her it would be dangerous. In the end, she couldn't stop the pinkette; she would go on ahead and do it, regardless of her warnings.

"Just gonna go scout out some more info." Lightning said a bit on the irritable side. The soldier was getting sick of everybody being up her ass all the time. They acted as if she needed her hand held; seemingly forgetting that she could take care of herself. Deep down she knew they were only caring for her. She admitted sometimes she was grateful for their worry, but she didn't want to be smothered in it.

"Oh, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, didn't they?" Fang said raising her hands up in defense. Although she looked surprised on the outside, Fang had gotten used to this kind of treatment from Lightning. Hell, everyone should have gotten used to the stoic soldier's attitude by now. The only one that got any sort of special treatment was Hope.

"I'm leaving." Lightning said harshly.

"Wait, Light take me with you." Fang said.

Lightning chewed on her lip thinking about Fang's proposition. It would only make sense to bring Fang along, since she _was_ a native of Pulse and probably knew the area better. The pink haired soldier huffed before saying, "Fine."

"I knew you would see things my way." Fang said with a satisfied smirk, happy that she'd won Lightning over. Which was an impressive feat indeed, seeing as not very many people, with the exclusion of Hope, could accomplish it.

"I didn't see things your way. I just thought it'd be beneficial to bring you along."

Lightning said. Absolutely refusing to let the tan woman believe she had 'saw things her way.'

"Sure." Fang said with a smirk. That was just Lightning's little way of saying she needed help. Instead of saying it outright, she'd mask it behind some excuse and then say it. Of course Fang wasn't stupid enough to believe her clever excuses. She could see through Lightning's false bravado.

"Let's get going." Lightning said.

"Right." Fang said.

The two ladies began their long walk through the Archytle Steppe departing from their base camp in Vallis Media. They had to walk all the way to the other side of the Steppe. On top of that they had to take a detour because a giant Adamantoise was blocking their way. Soon they reached the network of caves known as Ma'habara. It was easy to get lost in the vast expanse of caves, so the two women stayed close. A good way into the caves Lightning stopped.

"Somethin' wrong?" Fang asked in her thick Pulsian accent.

"It's up ahead. Be on your guard." Lightning said, drawing the Helter-skelter. Ready to skewer the next unfortunate beast that crossed her path. Fang drew her weapon as well. The two progressed slowly, eyeing their surroundings so not to get ambushed. After a turn of a corner the object of Lightning's curiosity appeared. A giant grey tablet that stood at least three stories.

"Well, _that_ wasn't there last time I was here." Fang said, marveling at the huge structure. Although she knew it couldn't of rose over night. "But I guess it had plenty of time, I haven't been here since I became a L'cie."

"And how long ago was that?" Lightning asked, approaching the gate.

"A little over one-hundred years ago." Fang said with a short laugh, remembering how long it had been since she had been back on Pulse. Oerba was probably packed by now, considering it was cramped even back when she lived there. Now imagine what it would be like.

"Hey Fang come take a look at this." Lightning said. Fang joined Lightning a second later. The pink-haired soldier pointed a slender finger to some writing on the giant tablet.

Fang's face scrunched up in confusion. "That's looks like…" She paused for just a moment. "Pulsian." The sari-clad huntress tapped her foot, wondering why Pulsian writing was on a tablet. She moved her face closer to the tablet's surface looking at it in intense concentration.

"Can you translate it?" Lightning asked. Although Lightning had been required to know a multitude of languages in the Guardian Corps, Pulsian wasn't one of them. The reason being Pulse was our enemy. Or so they said. The soldier's impression of Pulse was feral, but she hadn't encountered any bodies of people that made her suggest hostile as well.

"I think I can. But there's some writing here that's so degraded it's indecipherable." Her face once again contorted into one of intense concentration. "If the L'cie wish to gain new power and travel through time, open the gate and face its guardian." Fang waited a moment before saying, "Should we do it?"

"No, we don't know what we're dealing with." Lightning said. She was always against tampering with things that she knew nothing about. If you did, bad things tended to happen. It was pretty much how they all became L'cie.

"I think this is how you activate it." Fang said putting her hand on the circular engraving on the tablet. She seemed to have not heard Lightning or just ignored her.

"Fang what are you—"

A bright white light enveloped the caves, effectively blinding both women in the process. When the light finally cleared, a creature stood in their wake. It was lion-esque in appearance, with it's plume of brown hair on the sides of it's face, a mane down it's back, and the little ball of fluff at the end of it's tail. But the thing that stood out most was its sharp teeth; they were as sharp as Lightning's Helter-Skelter on a good day.

"What kind of Fal'cie are you?" Fang said yelling up at the creature. It barely tilted it's head in inclination to Fang when it scoffed and said,

"Hah! I am much more than a petty Fal'cie. I am Lial, ally of Mundus and enemy to Sparda!"

Lightning made it a point to punch Fang when this was all over. But now she had to focus on the task at hand to avoid becoming this things lunch. "I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about, but if it's a fight you want, then come on!"

"I'll play your little game, but don't expect to live when its over!" Lial said.

"Quite cocky isn't he?" Fang said to Lightning.

"Shut up, Fang." The soldier said with a sigh. She really wasn't in the mood to talk after what the opposite women had got her into.

"Prepare to die!" Lial said, letting out a battle cry, and sending one huge light brown paw to the women. Lightning and Fang dodged the paw quite easily with a side step.

"Slash and Burn, now!" Lightning said, in her usually cold, battle-ready tone. She commenced firing all manners of magic at the lion type enemy, while her blue-wearing counterpart was attacking with all her strength. Still the lion was showing no signs of pain or even flinching.

_Okay…_ Lightning thought. Then an idea popped into her head. "Fang, go Saboteur while I attack him!" Fang did as she was told and began casting a myriad of de-buffing spells, while Lightning attacked.

"You cannot beat me by humanly means!" The lion said, while ramming into the walls of the cave, causing the cave to collapse inwardly.

Fang ran over to Lightning and shielded her as she used a super-powered version of Medi-guard. "Stay behind me!" The Pulsian said in a voice mimicking Lightning's usual 'no nonsense' tone.

"Get back here!" Lightning said, totally ignoring what Fang said and going after the lion demon. Unfortunately as the cave collapsed, the pink-haired soldier found herself trapped. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the closing of the giant gate.

_Some time later…_

As Lightning came to, the first thing she felt was something heavy crushing her body. Then she remembered the demon, and then the collapse. The soldier had started to dig herself out, ignoring the immense pain that her whole body was under. When she finally dug herself out, she looked her body over. Several spots on her arms and legs were a deep purple, and she had a small cut in her shoulder. Lightning saw Fang's body a couple of feet away, and she instantly panicked. _Fang! _ The pinkette slowly tried to crawl toward the lance-wielding huntress, cursing the fact her body wouldn't operate properly. When she finally closed the distance, she started to shake Fang. "Fang, Fang, Fang!" Lightning nearly screamed out. After a few moments Fang's eyes opened and she said,

"Hi, sunshine."

Lightning mentally sighed, partially happy that Fang was okay, but at the same time she didn't know why. It's not like the two had been really close, Hell, she was closer to Hope than she was the almond-skinned hunter in front of her. She sighed again, pinning it on the fact that she thought Fang was a valuable ally. Lightning was pulled out of her thoughts and suddenly nose to nose with a very angry looking Fang.

"The hell is your problem? I told you to stay behind me, not go chasing after that Lion King reject!" Fang said.

Lightning's pale face turned into one of immense anger, shocked that Fang could even have the audacity to say such a thing. "And I told _you_ not to touch that thing. If you hadn't of done that we wouldn't be in this situation!"

Fang closed her mouth and looked down at the ground, knowing that she had been defeated.

The pinkette sighed, her face softened considerably as she adopted a nicer tone. "Look, all I'm saying is if you would've done what I told you, we wouldn't end up looking like… Well, _this_." She said indicating to the multitude of bruises on both women's arms and legs.

Fang sighed and gave a half-smile. "Well, whatever. What are we gonna do about Fluffy?"

"We're going to go after it if of course. I wanna know what he was talking about." Lightning said, The soldier's curiosity had peaked at the demon's knowledge of the Fal'cie and his claim to be more than one. Then there was the two names he brought up, Sparda and Mundus. What did they mean? Lightning was stuck in her thoughts when Fang spoke up.

"Wait doesn't that directly oppose your little rule?" Fang said with a little smirk. "Aren't you a little hypocrite." The brown-haired women scoffed.

"Fang, this time I've got a good reason." Lightning said trying to explain why she broke her number one rule.

"Heh, I had a good reason for activating that grey eyesore over there, too. And yet I get chewed out?" Fang mentally laughed. This woman didn't play fair.

"Look, let's just get going okay?" Lightning said. She really didn't want to waste time arguing with Fang, especially over stupid shit. They had bigger things to worry about. Like a giant lion demon.

"Alright, alright." Fang smiled. She'd chalk that up as a win.

"Fang… I have a question." Lightning said uncertainly.

"And I might have an answer for you. Go ahead. Shoot." Fang said with a slight grin.

"What was that you did back there?" Lightning asked. The question had been burning at the back of the pinkettes mind for a good couple of minutes. "It was like a regular Protect, only a lot stronger."

"I dunno. I'd say adrenaline. These brands of ours do some pretty weird stuff." Fang said. "I mean, a brand IS connected to our mind, and it would only make sense that the brand detected the adrenaline ."

Lightning's curiosity still wasn't sated, she still had a thousand questions for the demon that had run off, but that could wait until next time. And hopefully next time it'll be the lion buried under five feet of rock. Lightning gave a quick nod and started to walk again before turning around and saying, "Thanks."

"No problem, sunshine. But you should do what I tell you next time." Fang said.

"The same goes to you too." Lightning said.

The women ceased their chatter and walked up to the tablet and stopped. Fang was just about to activate it when Lightning said, "Stop."

Fang looked at Lightning with a quirked brown eye brown. "You're not getting cold feet are you?" It was very unlike Lightning to get cold feet. Usually she was fearless and nothing phased her, but this time the lance-wielding huntress could see the glint of worry and uncertainty in the opposite woman's eyes.

"Well, if what that thing said is true, we're traveling time. If we leave will we ever be able to come back?" Lightning questioned. Her fear wasn't really focused on what was ahead, more like, could she come back? Would she ever be able to see her friends again? _Will I ever get to see Serah again?_

"Lightning don't you think if there was a way forward there would be a way back?" Fang said. Why would there be? This was time they were talking about. There's a future AND a past. So if they can travel to the future, couldn't they travel to the past?

Lightning still looked uncertain.

Fang donned a softer tone and said, "Light, if you're having this much trouble, ya know we can just walk out and pretend this all never happened." Even though in the blue-clad huntresses head she knew that neither woman could forget what happened today. And that is just what Lightning was about to point out.

"No, Fang we can't." Lightning said, regaining her composure to a point. This thing knows something and I wanna find out what." The pink-haired soldier needed to find out how this thing knew of their world and why and also where the connection lied.

"I was wondering when you were gonna come back." Fang said with a little smirk. _Now that was the Lightning everybody knows and loves. _"That gate isn't gonna activate itself, at least I think it won't." Fang walked up to the gave and pressed her hand to the circular engraving in the stone.

The cave filled with a very bright light, as bright as being on the receiving end of a flash bang to the face. When the light cleared, a blue portal remained. It swirled around and around, inviting you to whatever lie beyond.

Lightning looked at the swirling circle of light. Inside this portal were the answers to all of her questions, or it could lead to their death, it just depended on if luck was on their side The soldier's wonders also drifted to her Focus. Would the gate show her what would've happened had she done things different? Had she not boarded the train? Or would it show her the mysterious conclusion to her Focus. Was Cocoon doomed to a bleak fate? And what of her and the others? Were they doomed to eternal damnation of becoming a Cieth?

"Lightning? Pulse to Lightning?" Fang said waving a tan hand in front of the strawberry blonde's face. The blonde seemingly snapped out of her trance and looked at Fang. "Are we gonna enter this thing or not?"

"Yeah." Lightning said simply. The two women entered the gate not sure of what lay on the other side, or even if they would find the answers they were looking for. But one thing was for sure, it would certainly turn out to be very interesting for them both.

**A/N: Hey guys, what do you think of the first chapter of my first story. Please try to excuse any OOC-ness. I think I can get into personality pretty well, but I'm not an expert.**

**Originally this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I found that where I ended it was appropriate enough. So stay tuned, and read and review!**

**-NMD15**


	2. Into The Void

Demons, Crazy Preachers, and All That Mumbo Jumbo

Chapter Two

As soon as she walked into the gate she felt as if she had died and left her body, She started to freak out but then she realized she only felt that way because she was floating. The sergeant looked around amazed and confused at what she saw. She was floating through rings that looked like cogs spinning and the surrounding area around her was a deep golden color.

"Wow, I never woulda thought…" Fang said.

Lightning raised an eyebrow, seeing as Fang knew something she didn't. "Never would of thought what?"

"We're floating through the Historia Crux. I thought the fairytales that the village elders told were just that; fairytales, but here it is. Living proof."` Fang said, her sense of shock and wonder overtaking her as the fairytales she was told as a child came to life right in front of her very eyes.

"What're you talking about? Sorry, but if you couldn't tell I'm not too educated on Pulsian legends." Lightning said with a bit of an irritated edge to her voice at the lack of understanding.

"The Historia Crux is a never ending passage through time. It links everything that ever has been and ever will be. Now the Historia Crux is only supposed to link time, but some say it also links different dimensions." Fang said.

"So in short, if we land in a different dimension, we're fucked." Lightning said bluntly using language because she felt there was no other way to put it.

Fang shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

"So what, does this thing just drop you off at random?" Lightning asked simply because they had been floating around for about five minutes and the soldier was beginning to get impatient; "Knowing our luck it'll probably drop us off on a cliff surrounded by a couple of behemoths…" Lightning said darkly.

:"Cheer up sunshine and besides, the Historia Crux usually requires something called an artifact to even activate. So Fluffy must've been the artifact, and since it didn't look like anything from our time it'll probably take us to its time." Fang said.

"Great, that's a real good reason to cheer up Fang." Lightning said with a sigh. "Next thing you know we'll have to fight Fluffy and his four sisters."

"If ya keep acting like that we will." Fang said in an equally dull voice as she put a hand over her eyes. What was she gonna do with the pink-haired women?

Deciding that she didn't want to talk anymore, the pinkette remained quiet. She thought about her situation. _Maybe I should have followed my number one rule. Then we wouldn't be on a time traveling trip to who knows where._ Lightning thought. _Well, it's too late for regrets. I just need to get the answers I need, and if what Fang said was true, we'll be out as quick as we came. But the artifact poses a problem. _Fang knew more on the subject so Lightning decided to ask her. "Hey, Fang."

"Hm?"

"Can the artifact be anything or does it have to be specific?" Lightning asked. If it had to be specific they'd be in trouble.

"It has to be from our time. If you use any other object, the gate won't activate." Fang said. "And on top of that, traveling time does have its consequences. If you alter something that was or wasn't supposed to happen, you may alter the whole timeline"

"Wonderful. Not only are we going to a time we aren't familiar with, but we also have to avoid altering the timeline there. _Then_ if we manage to do all that we still have to find the artifact from _our_ time." The soldier said with an exasperated tone.

"Oh! I forgot!" Fang said suddenly.

Lightning raised a pink eyebrow in suspicion.

"An artifact is something that doesn't belong in that time in the first place. So we shouldn't have any problems in that department." The tan huntress said.

"I wish you would've told me that earlier, asshole." Lightning said irritably.

"Fang raised her hands up in defense. "Gimme a break, it's been over a hundred years since I heard those legends." The lance-wielding women said defending herself. "You can't expect me to remember every detail."

"It's either you forgot or being cooped up in that crystal for a hundred years gave you a bad case of amnesia." Lightning said. She couldn't resist at taking a jab at the brown-haired women. _Why did I say that? _Lightning questioned. To her it implied that Fang and her shared a friendship, which they kind of did, but it wasn't jovial most of the time. So once again, Lightning questioned herself about what she had said.

"Light I think we've reached our destination." Fang said while pointing to a bright yellow light. Even though she didn't look it, Fang was apprehensive about their destination. She hoped they had just gone back in time and not to another dimension entirely. Then things would get quite problematic.

Secretly, Lightning felt some of the same way. A thousand thoughts and questions plagued her mind, but she put her doubts aside and prepared herself for what lay beyond the light.

Both women exited the gate without a word, their only problem was their 'exit' was ten feet in the air. Ten feet neither women were prepared for. Both of them landed on their backs, in a huge puddle, all the while getting the air knocked out of them.

"You should've brought one of those gravity gizmos." Fang said rubbing her back and pulling the blue sari from it's tight grip on her skin. "It definitely would've made the landing a lot smoother, and less _wet_."

Lightning silently agreed, dismayed that her only piece of clothing was soaking wet. This was definitely not a good way to start off. The pink-haired soldier finally got to her feet and examined the area. They were in an ally from the looks of it. Buildings lined the alley as well, but she couldn't tell what they were made out of. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't the flexible metal compound that ninety percent of Cocoons buildings were made of. From this information she could at least gather that they went back in time. "It doesn't look like we're in Cocoon anymore."

"Thanks I couldn't tell by the rotten smell hovering through the air." Fang said holding her nose. Whatever timeline they were in, smelled like a big smoldering pile of Chocobo crap. "So where do we start?"

"Simple. We talk to the locals, tell us our story and hope they believe us." Lightning said, making it sound like the simplest thing in the world. It wasn't the best plan the pinkette had ever had, but it was a start.

"Alright, I guess that's all we can do for now." Fang said shrugging her shoulders. _The question is will any of the locals believe us?_ The sari-clad huntress thought, She wasn't betting on it, but it was better than nothing. And hopefully they'd find a way out of their wet clothes.

The two women started to move toward the exit of the alley, but apparently fate had other plans as some weird monsters spawned around them. They had clown-like faces and a blade posing as an arm or leg, the thing that stood out most about them though was they carried themselves like they didn't have full control of their bodies.

"The hell are these things?" Fang said, drawing her lance and getting into her usual battle-ready stance placing her weapon just behind her.

"How should I know?" Lightning said backing up from the terribly misshaped beings and drawing her weapon as well.

"Well, whatever lets just focus on killing the damn things." Fang said shifting back into battle mode. That said she ran up to one of the beings and impaled it with her lance, she quickly side-stepped as one of them attempted to decapitate her. Then she dodged another attack aimed at her hip, and then another aimed at cutting her arm off. The blue-clad huntress got slightly annoyed She'd only killed one of them, and every time she'd go for another they would either jump out of the way or she would have to dodge another attack. Fang's eye flicked over to Lightning. It seemed she was having much of the same difficulty. "Sunshine!"

Lightning looked in her direction.

"Let's use these stupid tattoos of ours!" Fang said with a grin holding up her right arm where her l'Cie brand was. No sooner after she said that the brown-haired huntress casted a Firaga toward the mob of circus rejects. Lightning did much of the same.

With the introduction of their brands the battle didn't last long. Lightning glared at the yellow-green liquid that was left of the monsters. "We need answers."

"Soon enough we'll have them Light. You just gotta be patient, though I know that's impossible for you." Fang said. Her pale-skinned counterpart gave her a glare and after that said, "Let's start searching."

The two women exited the alley and finally saw how different this time was from theirs. While Cocoon's buildings varied in shaped and sizes, the buildings here where all square in shape with lines of windows going up them. Some had lights on in them some didn't. The vehicles where different here too. They varied in shaped and size, but all had one characteristic in common, they all were rectangular, square, or a rounded square. They had four wheels on them that moved them forward.

"Just how far back did we go?" Lightning asked and silently wondered in her head. Everything about this world looked horribly primitive compared to hers. Also the people here dressed differently. And apparently they hadn't come to discover AMP technology yet because the vehicles were all still bound to the ground.

"I don't know how far back we went, but I already wish I was back on Pulse. It smells horrible here." Fang said, Even the bustling metropolis of Eden had better air quality than this city. Everything smelled like smog and sewer. The streets were also littered with all kinds of trash.

"The people here have no respect for where they live." Lightning commented as she examined the grimy buildings and the trash. Back in Cocoon you'd be arrested if you even dropped _a_ piece of paper on the ground. But this was just nasty.

"Well, we'd better start looking. We aren't gonna get anywhere standing here and admiring all this filth." Fang said being the one to get the duo back on track.

"Your right." Lightning said.

The pair then walked around town for a good while telling everybody their story, most of the people they talked to didn't even bat an eyelash and walked on, Of course that was much of what the women had expected. After all who _would_ believe them? They talked about demons and time travel and artifacts. Hell, half of them didn't know anything. Bit after walking for what felt like forever, they were finally pointed to a local strip joint called Love Planet. The two walked up to the entrance slowly.

"I can't believe out of all places we have to go to a strip club to get information." Lightning said with a hand over her face. She would never let Fang know, but in actuality the soldier had never been to a strip club and was very nervous.

"That's what the guy said. Apparently one of the bartenders in this place knows a guy that deals in demons and the supernatural like." The tan woman said. Fang mentally laughed at Lightning's reaction. "And besides, what's got you so skittish about a strip club? Never been to one before?" The Pulsian teased.

"Shut up Fang!" Lightning said. _How could she read me so easily?_ "Let's just get in, get our info, and get out. No side trips." The pinkette said. She wanted to make this quick so she didn't embarrass herself in front of Fang. The sari-clad huntress would never let her hear the end of it.

When the two women entered the club, Lightning was instantly glad for the dimmed purple lighting because her cheeks were beet red. Not because of being nervous, but because of being embarrassed. Fang took the liberty of pointing out all of the naked women and telling her the ones she liked, and even occasionally asked Lightning if she liked any of them. Lightning had been aware of Fang's bisexual nature but never imagined she'd be in a strip club watching her point out all the women she liked.

"Oooh, and that one over there looks nice too." The lance-wielding huntress said pointing at a brown-haired girl with fairly big breasts.

"Fang remember, NO side trips." Lightning said trying to keep the Pulsian on task and avoid dying from embarrassment at the same time.

Fang sighed and said, "Alright. Let's go get our info. I'll have plenty of time to get my rocks off later."

The two women moved throughout the club until they found the bar. It was probably the highlight of the club, considering how big the selection of whiskey was. One of the bartenders walked over and said, "Hello, ladies. What can I get you."

"Nothing we're just looking for a guy named Jack." Lightning said, trying to get in, and get out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the next few words weren't what Lightning wanted to hear. If she had a gun she'd shoot the bartender.

"Sorry, hun. He won't be in for another fifteen minutes."

"I guess we'll wait." Lightning said although extremely unhappy with the situation. Great, now Fang would harass her some more.

"C'mon sunshine let's have a drink. We've had enough troubles the past six hours, why the hell not?" Fang said. The blue-clad huntress hadn't had a drink in a while and she was pretty sure they'd both need one.

For once, something Fang said didn't sound like a bad idea. Normally she'd just flat out say no, but circumstances were different. So she agreed. "Why the hell not?"

"What?" Fang said shocked. "You actually agree to do something fun and not business related for once?" The pinkette hardly ever agreed to do anything fun, she'd better enjoy it while it lasted

"Don't push it." Lightning said annoyed.

Fang hailed the bartender over and ordered her drink. "I'll have a Sex on The Beach"

"And I'll take a scotch." Lightning said. She was just about to pull out her wallet and pay the bartender, but she forgot she had Gil. The soldier didn't know what currency to use in this time. Thankfully the bartender said,

"Don't worry their on me." He then brought them their drinks respectively.

"Thank you." Lightning said.

The two girls then sipped their drinks in silence for the next fifteen minutes. Then the a bartender walked up to them and said, "You were looking for me?" The man said.

"Jack right?" Fang said.

The man nodded in response.

"We're looking for the guy that deals with demons and the supernatural like." Fang said. "Heard you might know somebody like that?"

The bartender named Jack covered his mouth and said, "His name is Dante. He lives a couple of blocks from here. He lives in a shop called Devil May Cry. Just be sure to not say his name out loud. He's a wanted man."

"Wanted by what?" Lightning said. Why would a man that kills demons for humans be wanted?

"He can explain that himself. Now get lost people are starting to stare." Jack said shooing them off.

The two women finished their drinks and exited the bar. Following the mans directions they came across the shop called Devil May Cry. It was a rather seedy looking place but the women didn't care as long as they got their answers. They walked up to the brown double doors and knocked. The man that answered had white hair, a red leather trench coat, brown-red leather pants, and brown cowboy boots. He had blue eyes and on a physical note was very built. The man gained a big smirk as he said,

"Whoa, it's not everyday that I get smokin' hot chicks coming to my shop! To what can I do you girls for?" He said.

"We want information." Lightning said. "We heard that you were the guy to come to about anything demonic or supernatural."

"That'd be me young lady. So what kind of information you need?" The man said.

"It's a bit weird. Can we come in?" The pink-haired women said. She didn't wanna start telling him anything until they were somewhere private. Nobody but a certain few needed to know about their ordeal."

The man thought about it for a minute and stepped back. "Come on in. Just don't expect much."

The man was right to tell them not to expect much. It was just as seedy as it looked outside. Pizza boxes were strewn everywhere, beer bottles were on the floor, the floor itself had a fine layer of dirt, and the building as a whole looked ready to fall apart. Obviously this man had never heard of the words 'repair' or 'remodel'

"So what's a demon hunter like you doing living in a shithole like this? I mean I'm sure you make enough money to remodel or something." Fang said commenting on the condition of the shop. It looked more like a shack to her.

"Hey, hey." The man said raising his hands up in front of himself. "It's true she ain't the prettiest looking thing, but I've had her for years. So anyways lets cut to the chase. What's the problem?"

So the women sat down on the shoddy sofa while the man sat at his desk and told their story. They told him about the lion demon Lial, and also the two weird names he mentioned, Sparda and Mundus. And they also told him how they had gotten here. To their surprise the man didn't seem that perplexed.

"It's a bit on the wild side, but its nothing I ain't heard before." The white-haired man said leaning back in his chair. These two women had no idea what this man had been through.

"So can you help us Mr…" The pinkette had no idea what to call the man since he hadn't told them his name yet.

"Dante, just Dante." The man now known as Dante said. "And yes, I can help you, but I do have one condition." He definitely wasn't gonna give valuable help out for free.

"And what would that be?" Fang said.

"You said you guys don't have anywhere to stay right?" Dante asked.

The two women nodded.

"Well, I'm willing to let you guys stay here. It's not the best place in the world but it'll do right? And onto my condition, as long as you guys stay here you have to pitch in help on missions." Dante said.

"Missions?" Fang and Lightning both said at the same time, having no idea what he was talking about.

"Basically I go out and get rid of demons for people all around the city. Ya know, hence the title 'demon hunter'?" Dante said, explaining to the two women his line of work.

"That sounds like it'll work just as long as you don't think you'll sleep with us on the side too." Lightning said. There wasn't any way that she would let some guy sleep with her, and an annoying one at that.

"Well, okay I was kinda thinking about it—" Poor Dante didn't even get to finish his sentence before he got the taste slapped out of his mouth, and then some, courtesy of Lightning..

"Sorry pretty boy, but the first thing your gonna learn about my friend is she doesn't take to kind to jokes." Fang said. "Now, me on the other hand, you can work with." The blue-clad huntress said walking up to Dante's desk and leaning on it.

Lightning for some reason felt jealous at seeing Fang's provocative gesture, but was soon relieved when she said,

"Kidding!"

"Ugh, right. Spare bedroom is upstairs on the right, the bathroom is in the back." He said pointing to the doorway at the back of the shop to emphasize his point. "And sorry but the mattress is a queen, you'll have to share."

"That'll do pretty boy. The name is Fang, and the one that just slapped the taste out of your mouth is Lightning. Nice to meet ya."

"Nice to meet you too. Well, I'm hitting the hay, so goodnight." Dante said as he put a magazine over his face and leaned back in his chair.

"Good night, and thanks." Fang said going upstairs with Lightning close behind. The two women made it to the spare bedroom and both plopped down on the bed. Both women were happy to finally get out of their soaking wet clothes, the only problem was the clothes were soaked all the way down to the bra and panties, so it looked like both women would have to sleep in the nude.

Lightning plopped down on one side of the bed and said, "Fang, stay on your side of the bed, if you cross over to my side I'll kick your ass." Knowing Fang it probably wouldn't work but the Pulsian couldn't say she hadn't been warned.

"Message received, soldier." Fang said giving a mock salute. The tan woman got on her side of the bed, but didn't intend to leave Lightning alone. To her it was fun watching her get all riled up, and kinda cute too.

_Later…_

Fang couldn't sleep. She felt restless as hell. So she decided to mess with Lightning a little bit. She slowly scooted over to the pinkette's side of the bed so not to wake her, and put a finger on her shoulder and moved it all the way down her back. The brown-haired huntress continued this motion for a couple of minutes then switched to moving her hand down the women's side.

Unbeknownst to Fang, Lightning was awake. The young soldier realized she should've told her counterpart to stop, but it felt good. _What is she doing to me?_ Finally after about ten minutes, Lightning decided to make Fang stop by saying, "What are you doing?"

"You like it don't you?" Fang said continuing her actions.

She _did_ like it but would never admit it, instead she said, "Fang, you just got yourself an absolutely warm invitation to the floor." Lightning said

"You know you don't mean that." Fang said, smirking.

"Yes, I do." The pale woman said trying to keep her voice steady so it wouldn't crack and expose her little secret. "Floor. Now."

Fang huffed in frustration and said, "Alright, alright." She relocated to the floor beside the bed and let the opposite women have the bed to herself. Not long after, Fang fell asleep.

Lightning sighed. _Great. I'm stuck in a timeline I don't understand, and my feelings are for Fang are turning into something much the same. Could it get any worse? _The soldier soon put her thoughts to rest and drifted off to sleep herself.

**A/N: This chapter totaled almost 4,000 words! That's a huge record for me! It wasn't actually supposed to get this long, but I'm not complaining.**

**Sorry if Dante isn't in character that well, I haven't written anything DMC related in a while.**

**And if I'm getting into the relationship too fast, sorry. I've never been good at that kind of thing, but I'm doing WAAAY better this time around.**

**So what do you guys think? Lightning's feelings are getting complicated. Stay tuned and read and review! See ya!**

**-NMD15**


	3. The Hunt Begins

Demons, Crazy Preachers, and All That Mumbo Jumbo

Chapter Three

_Lightning's Dream…_

Lightning moved as quick as her sore legs would allow her to, but it didn't seem like she would make it. She was failing to find the 'lightning' her name stood for. _Move faster, move faster, move faster!_ Despite the mental motivation, her legs still felt like thousand pound weights anchoring her to the ground.

A beaten and nearly broken Fang was caught in the middle of a group of Scarecrows. The black bra underneath her sari was completely ripped and had partially fallen off of one of her breasts; her sari was ripped in various places and barely clinging to her shoulders, her face had lost its light brown tint and began turning pale, and her hair was matted to her forehead from dried blood. Truly the huntress had seen better days.

The battered Pulsian weakly continued to fight, cutting down Scarecrow after Scarecrow, but no matter how many she cut down, more kept coming. There seemed to be no end to them. Fang was getting tired. She had been fighting constantly but no avail. Finally, her fatigue reached its limit and she messed up. In the midst of a block, her lance went flying from her grip and skittered across the ground somewhere behind her.

The pinkette saw this and pushed her legs as fast as they would go. But it seemed it was all for nothing. The next thing that happened nearly made Lightning trip and fall on her face.

Fang was impaled with one of the Scarecrow's blades sticking out of her back. All that came out of her mouth was a strangled grunt. Blood dripped out her mouth and down her chin, marking a crimson trail on the huntress's once beautiful skin. Suddenly her legs seemed to fall out from under her, and she fell backwards, landing on the ground with a soft thud.

The sergeant's eyes widened and she closed her mouth resisting the strong urge to scream. Lightning's entire body felt numb. She had just watched one of her friends die and she had done nothing to stop it. Tears flowed freely from her eyes now as she rushed to Fang's fallen form. She kneeled to her side and picked her up. Sadly her wounds were way beyond what magic could heal and even if they hadn't been, the pink-haired soldier wasn't even sure she could heal her. _No… _But she could try.

Lightning felt for the well of magic stored inside her brand. It was shallow, _very_ shallow. She'd be lucky if she could muster up a good Thunder, let alone a few Cure spells. But she also couldn't just give up and do nothing, so she casted as many Cure spells as she could. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be doing much effect. The soldier women muttered a curse under her breath.

"Lightning run... Leave me behind…" Fang muttered weakly, her wounds impairing her ability to speak in one coherent sentence. "He'll kill you. And I could never forgive myself…" The Pulsian said, trying to warn her before it was too late. Although, she knew her counterpart wouldn't do it.

"Fang, who are you talking about? Tell me!" The sergeant said, her words coming out frantically. She took a deep breath to try and calm her erratic breathing. _Shut out all of your emotions and focus on what's in front of you._ Lightning though to herself, but every time she looked at Fang's wounds and felt her shallow breathing, her concentrated mindset disintegrated.

Fang however, didn't respond. Each of her breaths became shallower and she no longer made an attempt at breathing. She slowly started sinking into Lightning's arms.

"No…No…No…" Lightning said shaking Fang's body, not believing that her friend had just died in her arms. "Fang, NO" The pink-haired soldier's head fell onto the dead Pulsian's chest as she cried.

_Reality…_

Apparently Lightning's dream shook her up so much she fell off of the bed—right on top of Fang. The women beneath her grunted. The pink-haired women hadn't registered what had happened until Fang spoke up.

"You mind gettin' off me sunshine? You're kinda squashing me here." As soon as Lightning got off of her she also said "Sheesh, for a person athletic as you, you weigh as much as a Juggernaut."

Lightning turned away and hid her blush from Fang. _Damn it. I don't act like this around anyone else BUT her!_ The soldier thought. She didn't even act this way around Hope. Her composure was always in check, but it seemed as if this one woman had complete control of her emotions. Every time Fang complimented her, or said anything even remotely sexual, her walls crumbled. As much as she hated to admit it, Lightning was putty in the blue-clad huntress's hands.

_Ugh, I need a shower…_ The pinkette was just about to head downstairs when she remembered. She was naked as the day she was born. Lightning groaned. Walking past Fang standing in the middle of the room uselessly, she looked for her uniform only to find that hers _or_ Fang's for that matter weren't there. _Oh, if he thought I slapped him hard last night, just wait._ The sergeant thought, thinking of what she was going to do when she got her hands on Dante.

Finding nothing but a dingy towel to cover herself with, Lightning headed downstairs. To her dismay Dante was awake, sitting with his feet up on the desk, reading a magazine. When he heard her come down he put his feet down and said,

"Yours and Fing's uniforms are in the laundry—" He started. But, ladies and gentleman as fate would have it; he never got to finish his sentence because,

SLAP!

"You had the nerve to go up there while we were naked!? You fucking pervert! If you _ever_ do that again I'll castrate you myself!" Lightning yelled in his face loud enough that everyone in a two mile radius could've heard. The pale-skinned woman started walking away but then stopped and said,

"And her name is Fang."

"Oh, I see. You girls must have something goin' on. I mean, the way you were moaning her name last night. That would explain why the sheets were all wet." Dante said with an evil and knowing smirk, very aware that he was just adding fuel to the fire.

"Careful pretty boy. Antagonize her too much and she might be tempted to kill ya." Fang said with a warning tone. The Pulsian had come downstairs wearing a white tank top, and a grey pair of gym shorts. She probably wasn't wearing anything underneath.

Wait, did she just? The pale-skinned woman shook her head and stormed off into the bathroom. The bathroom, unlike anything else in the shop, was clean. Spotless, in fact. There wasn't a speck of dirt to be seen. The bathroom itself had a small walk-in shower, a sink, and a toilet. The only side effect would be that it was all crammed together in a very small space.

Lightning let the towel drop to the floor and stepped into the shower. As soon as the warm water hit her skin, she retreated into thought. Lightning had a lot of thing to think about. How they would get back, could they still save Cocoon, why was she beginning to feel weird about Fang, and all manner of other things. All while they're l'Cie marks ticked away, getting closer and closer to becoming a Cieth.

Coming back to reality, she grabbed a bottle of shampoo off of the shelf in the shower. Huh, it was the girl's brand. Why in the hell would Dante have the girl's brand? Shrugging her shoulders, Lightning squirted some of the pinkish-white liquid into her hand and put it into her hair. Suddenly, the pinkette almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Fang banging on the bathroom door.

"Hey, Light! I got your uniform and a clean towel." Fang's voice said from the other side of the thin piece of wood between them.

Couldn't this woman leave her alone for once? "Just leave it at the door!" Lightning yelled in an effort to keep Fang from coming in. To her dismay, Fang just opened the door and said,

"Don't be shy sunshine, we're both woman here." The tan woman said while laying Lightning's uniform and the clean towel on the toilet. Fang left the room, but not without saying, "Besides, you don't have anything to hide. You're a very beautiful woman, Light." She said that last sentence like she deeply meant it.

With a sigh, the sergeant turned off the water and changed into her clothes. When she walked into the main room of the shop, she noticed Fang was in her usual uniform as well, and she had her lance on her back. _Dante must've found our first mission._ Lightning thought. This was about to get very interesting.

"Well ladies, guess what?" Dante said.

"I think we already know." Lightning said, cutting to the chase like she usually did. "So what's the mission?" She said, crossing her arms.

_Man, she's always so deathly serious… Hasn't she ever heard of FUN before?_ Dante thought. Sighing he said, "Well, it looks like our kitty cat picked up lunch. The problem is _lunch _was a dozen or so people in a city kinda far from here called Fortuna And our other problem is the founding organization in town is very opposed to outsiders. So when you get there don't attract attention. Capice?"

"Heh, you should be happy sunshine. This is your preferred kind of work, right?" Fang said, knowing that Lightning being in the Guardian Corps meant that she was used to this kind of work.

"Yeah, but the only problem 'my kind of work' is that it never goes as planned. For all we know we could be walking into a trap." The pink-haired woman said. She still remembered when she was in Guardian Corps training and they had drilled one phrase into her head constantly. Expect the unexpected. And it was that saying that saved her ass a few times and even almost killed her.

"Is that your response to every plan we come up with?" Fang said, putting her hands on her hips. She heard that saying SO many times; it was like a broken record.

"Alright girls, quit bickering and let's rock!" Dante said enthusiastically with a hand in the air. Hopefully, things would get a little more interesting around here with Fang and Lightning around.

"I'm driving." Fang said with a little grin. She jogged outside with Dante close behind, protesting that she couldn't drive his 'baby'. The blue-clad Pulsian got into the drivers seat anyway, and she found herself with a dilemma. She had _no_ idea how to drive this thing,

Dante must've noticed her blank stare at the console and the steering wheel and said, "Uh, I think these would help." He said shaking a pair of keys between his thumbs. _Sheesh, if they don't know how to drive a car, how the hell did they did they get around?_ Fang took the keys, smirked and said,

"Thanks, pretty boy." She stuck the keys in the key hole, but found that it didn't start. Fang finally caught on when Dante made several frantic twisting motions with his fingers. She twisted the keys and the car came to life with a loud purr of the engine. It's a good thing the white-haired demon hunter had thought to get into the car beforehand because Fang almost backed the vehicle into the shop. Lightning sat in back. She couldn't resist smirking and saying,

"Nice driving."

"You wanna try sunshine? Honestly it isn't as easy as it looks." Fang said. The tan woman smirked. With Lightning driving, they'd all probably die of a heart attack. But even so, even Lightning wasn't as bad at driving as Snow. She remembered several times where she felt like she was going to fall off with the blondes driving.

"Okay, Fang. For the sake of you not killing us, do you see the stick between the two seats?" Dante asked. The woman nodded in reply. "That is the stick shift, all the way up is drive, middle is neutral, and back is reverse. Then where your feet are there are two pedals. See 'em?" She nodded again. "The thin one is the gas pedal, and the wide one is the brake. USE THE BRAKE MORE OFTEN!" Dante said with a _lot_ of extra emphasis on the last sentence.

"Okay, now that I know how to drive this thing, I'd say we're running late." Fang said.

"The longer we sit here, the more likely that they've already cleaned up the evidence of that demons attack. Then we're screwed." Lightning said, speaking up from her spot in the back seat. If they didn't find out where Fluffy went next the trail might go cold, and that was NOT what Lightning wanted. Then her travel to this time would've been for nothing.

"Nice job stating the obvious, Lightning." Dante said from his spot in the front seat. "But she is right, if we don't get there quick, they may clean up the sight of the murders in order to prevent a wide-spread panic." The man clad in red said.

"Okay, then lets get the hell out of here." Fang said. She put the car in reverse and pulled out of the driveway, thankfully clearing the shop this time around. The drive to Fortuna was rather boring, but it didn't matter the tan woman wasn't paying attention to the road. She had put herself into autopilot and retreated to the recesses of her thoughts. The lance-wielding huntress hadn't expected for so much to happen in less than two days. They'd discovered something called a gate, fought its guardian, thrust themselves into a new dimension, met a demon hunter named Dante, and _now_ they were on their way to track down a demon in which they had no idea the true powers it possessed. All on one of Lightning's little whims.

The raven-haired women flicked one eye towards the pinkette in the backseat to find that she was blankly looking out the window. Probably lost in her thoughts as well. Fang's thoughts then, without her consent, drifted to what she had said to the opposite in the bathroom earlier that day. She had told Lightning she was beautiful. Did she really mean it, or was it just some form of a sweet nothing to get in her pants? No matter how much she wanted the soldier, the odds of Lightning wanting her back were severely unrealistic, given the burden on her shoulders right now. Fang sighed. Apparently she had sighed too loudly because Lightning raised her eyebrow and said,

"Something wrong, Fang?" With an ever so slight tint of concern in her voice that she probably didn't think Fang could pick up.

"Nothing, Light." Fang said from her position at the steering wheel. It seemed Lightning was happy with this response because she said nothing more, but the Pulsian knew that inside of her head she was speculating at what Fang's over exaggerated sigh might mean.

_Something's eating at her, I know it. Could she be feeling the same emotions that I am? _Lightning thought. The pinkette shook her head and ran a hand through her still slightly wet hair. "Seriously, Fang what's eating at you?" Lightning asked with a soft but firm voice. Everybody should have known by now, especially Fang, that the female sergeant wouldn't just settle for an explanation as weak as 'Nothing, Light'

"I'm serious sunshine—" Fang started to say, but then Lightning cut her off with,

"Fang, cut the bullshit. It's written all over your face. There IS something wrong and I want to know what." The pink-haired woman said, with a deathly serious voice. This was one of those moments were Lightning refused to be denied a full explanation. She didn't get one though, because all Fang said was,

"Later, okay? I think we're almost there anyways." The tan woman said, sighing. She was relieved when Lightning didn't say anything back and just crossed her arms against her chest with a huff. But Lightning would want a full explanation later, so she had better come up with one or just plain avoid the subject until she felt ready to tell her, which would probably be never. At least not until she knew Lightning felt like she did, which was again, unlikely. Fang looked next to her in the passenger seat to find Dante snoring, she had to give the man credit, if he could sleep through one of Lightning's arguments, he could probably sleep through anything.

An hour or two later, Fang stopped the car in front of a huge pair of gates about ten to twelve feet high. She shook Dante awake and said,

"I think we're here." Fang said blankly.

"Yep, this'd be it. Now remember what I said, _no_ extra attention. It's bad for business." Dante said as he got out of the car. With the two women behind him he walked up to the two guards and said, "Afternoon gentleman, I got a call from this town about a demon attack." Dante said.

"The situation has already been detained. And we don't let outsiders in this town anyways." The guard said, putting his lance between them and the gate to emphasize his point. "We don't need outside help. We can handle ourselves."

The man in red, donned a look of annoyance and crossed his arms, but didn't seem at all surprised at the guard's response. Instead, he took a step closer and said, "I kinda figured you were gonna say that. Look, this demon has pissed some people off, mainly me and my two associates, so this isn't just business it's personal. Now would you please let us in?"

"The knight thought a bit before saying, "Fine, but no weapons within the city. Give them to me now, they will be returned to you when you leave." The guard said. The guard had everybody's weapons except for Lightning's. "Your weapon please, miss."

Lightning pulled her weapon out of it's leather sheath on her hip and handed it to the guard and said, "I know exactly how many nuts and bolts are in this thing, if I find one missing, well, I'll cut your balls off." The pinkette said with a satisfied smirk at watching the guard hurry to open the gate and let them in. She loved doing that. She also noticed Dante's wary expression at what she said. _Hopefully, that'll make him think twice about coming up stairs when we're naked._ She thought.

"So where should we start?" Fang said putting her hands on her hips and waiting for a response.

"Well, from what I've heard the majority of the attack happened in the square so Fang, you're with me, and Lightning well, do as you please as long as you stay out of trouble." Dante said.

"So that's it? Your just gonna leave me here in a completely foreign city, to just sit with my thumbs up my ass?" Lightning said, more than a little pissed. _What am I supposed to do? Sit on a park bench and feed the birds?_ She thought.

"Investigating a crime scene is a two-man job. If I brought anymore than that I'd be attracting unwanted attention, and we don't need that, remember?" Dante said.

The pinkette sighed. To a _very_ small point, Dante was right. She saw Fang's apologetic glance at her as she walked away with the red-haired hunter. Giving into defeat she walked over to (ironically) a park bench and sat down. A few minutes later a young man with white hair ran past her in a hurry. White hair. That vaguely reminded her of Hope; except Hope's hair wasn't white it was silver-ish. _Hope…_ The sergeant leaned back and rested her head on the park bench. She hadn't realized how much she missed the teenager until just now. _Hope, I promise I'll make it out of here somehow._

Then something smacked her in the face. _Wait, white hair?_

**End.**

**First of all I just wanna say THAT was a hard chapter to grind out. I really had writer's block on how to start the chapter, then after that I didn't know how to continue the chapter. Thankfully, a few days ago my inspiration returned after listening to Periphery's album Periphery II**

**Speaking of which, I just randomly picked that album out at Hot Topic last week. Hands down, best album I ever bought.**

**So I really don't think this is one of my better chapters but it was decent I hope. I'm sorry if Fang and Lightning's thought processes are either too alike or too reoccurring. I'm trying to describe more and I think I'm doing a good job.**

**Read and review please!**

**-NMD15**


	4. Investigation Time

Demons, Crazy Preachers, and All That Mumbo Jumbo

Chapter Four

**Sorry for making you wait so long! Chapter Six isn't done yet but you guys have waited long enough, so hears a chappy for your trouble.**

Gran Pulse

It had been a full two days since Lightning and Fang's disappearance and the group, particularly Hope was in a panic. As for the rest of the group, Sazh and Snow took charge of things on that end. Of course, Sazh was the brains of the two and Snow was the brawn. Eden knows, if Snow ever came up with a plan of action it would probably be something like "Charge in and save 'em all" That was the biggest downside to the blonde-haired man's plans. Hardly any thoughts were put into them. It's a good thing Sazh was the one announcing the plan and not Snow.

"Alright people, this is how it'll go. Snow and Hope will take the Paddrean Acropolis and see if they can find any clues. Vanille and I will cover Sulya Springs. We'll get there via Cieth waystones. Any questions? No? Good. Oh and one last thing, Snow and Hope please don't head into the Faultwarrens. I don't want you guys to end up as Titan's lunch, okay?"

The big man nodded and smirked, while Hope shuddered next to him and said,

"Isn't that a bit far?" Hope said. He had a very good reason to be alarmed. The Acropolis and the Springs were quite far apart, at his guess they would be on separate sides of Pulse. Really not good if something happened. Like if they had awakened some ancient monster and it had decided to make them its new playthings. Okay, the thin teen was just being paranoid on that account. He just hoped that it would rear back and bite him on the bum. Which often happened a lot, so he'd better just quit speculating while he was ahead.

"Yeah, it is. Normally I wouldn't dream of splitting us up so far apart, but we gotta find soldier girl and Fang." Sazh said scratching the back of his head. The black man was right. They needed to find the two women quickly, there wasn't really another option. To go on with their quest alone would be suicide. Two kids, a civilian pilot, and a false hero were not good odds. In truth, Fang and Lightning were the only two warriors of the rag tag group of people. The rest of them were just civilians who's life had been turned on its head by becoming l'Cie.

Except for Snow, of course. He was in a different class all together. The blonde-haired man was a vigilante. Sazh wasn't quite sure if it was for the attention, to look good in front of his fiancé or the fact that he really just wanted to help people. The afro headed man wasn't sure where to put him in those categories just yet. But he did know one thing; he didn't understand Snow's reasoning at all. Why go out and put yourself in danger on purpose? Sazh knew there must be a deeper lying reason than that, but it wasn't one he was going to trouble himself with. He sighed. 'Alright, let's get this ball rolling. We'll return to camp at sundown and tell what we've found, if anything."

The journey towards the Acropolis was a quiet one, except for Snow's stomping on the unfortunate flowers in his path. Hope shook his head. _Is he loud with everything he does?_ With Snow the answer was a 'yes'. Apparently the word 'quiet' wasn't in the big man's dictionary, but then again not many were.

Hope looked toward the sky. He hoped Lightning was okay. Even though she swore she'd never get involved in something without a reason, often times her reasons were about as thought out as one of Snow's plans. He'd never say that in front of her because the consequences weren't worth that fact. The white-haired teen would rather not spend one of his mornings spitting out shoe laces. He shuddered. But at the same time, even in her stoic attitude there was a heart in there. The slender boy just hoped it hadn't stopped and she wasn't face down in a ditch somewhere. _Stop it Estheim, your doing it again._

"Your thinking about Lightning aren't you?" Snow said suddenly.

"No." Hope said horridly. Hope winced, that had come out way too fast and unsteady. Sometimes the teen wished he had more control over his emotions. Snow gave a deep rumbling laugh and said,

"Your mouth always betrays you Hope." Snow said. After said boy's silence for a few seconds, the huge man adopted a lighter tone and said, "Look, I know you're worried. We all are, Hope. But trust me, Light's still alive. She would never lie down and die, not for anyone."

After a few seconds Hope smiled. Snow was right. There was no way in hell Lightning was dead. Her pride wouldn't let her just die. "You know, Snow?" The man opposite him quirked a blonde eyebrow that ended up obscured in his bandana. "You're not as block-headed as Light says you are."

"Really?" Snow said incredulously.

It was Hope's turn to laugh now. "Yeah. But I don't know…" He said, making Snow cross his arms and say,

"Now that's not fair." In reaction to the big man's comment Hope laughed even harder. Snow smiled. It was good that even though they were in a bad situation he could keep Hope laughing. Snow knew in his heart that Hope was worried about Light, but as long as he could keep him off the subject or reassure him the kid would be okay. Soon Snow could see the downed buildings of the Paddrean Acropolis come into view. "Alright, Hope. We're here so let's get cracking!" He said while pounding his knuckles together.

"The question is…"

"Where do we start?" Snow said finishing Hope's thought.

"How about that chapel-looking place over there?" Snow said. He pointed a thick, gloved finger to a building with a pristinely white, domed roof that, unlike it's neighbors, was still standing and showed no signs of damage, save for a hole in the roof. The teenager opposite him chewed his lip before shrugging his shoulders and saying,

"Well, I guess we gotta start somewhere." Hope said. With an agreement being met the two carefully began their hike into the Acropolis. Which, unfortunately for them was a downward hike and the only way down was a trail of debris from the fallen city. Not the safest trail, but it sure beat jumping down a twenty foot drop and breaking a leg, _or two_.

Snow looked funny going down the trail of debris, taking small steps down the rubble, loosing his balance every few shaky footfalls. It was a miracle that he hadn't fallen already. Hope had preferred to take it slow and sit on his bum and use his feet, making an awkward forward crawling motion. At least if he fell, he could catch himself. Or so he though. The blonde-haired man had made it to the bottom, just in time to catch a runaway Hope.

"Whoa, you alright there? I bet your bottom's a bit sore after sliding down that rubble, huh?" Snow said with a good-natured smirk.

Even though he knew Snow was just messing around, Hope could've sworn he was being talked to like a child, and he didn't like it one bit. The teenager picked himself up from his place on the ground and dusted himself off. Instead of answering rudely he offered his rebuttal in the form of a joke. "Shut up, Snow. At least I didn't look like a drunken bear."

"Aw come on now. What is it 'pick on Snow day'?" The man said with a tone mimicking having his feelings hurt.

"Now, Snow." Hope said wagging a thin finger. "You know 'Pick On Snow Day" Only exists in Lightning's calendar. And I think it would be marked in something more along the lines of 'TORTURE SNOW' and I'm fairly sure she thinks it's the reason for her existence, not a mere day in her calendar." The teen said matter-of-factly.

"Thanks Hope, you really put it into context for me." Snow muttered under his breathe. _All the same, I will save you sis._ Snow thought. _I'll save both of you._ The gigantic man though certainly not forgetting about the memento in his trench coat pocket. Even though Lightning acted like she hated him, she didn't. She just didn't have any other way of showing it other than pushing him around. Showing emotion was so awkward to her she took every possible safety precaution to avoid it. Snow was snapped out of his thoughts by a gentle nudge from Hope.

"Let's get going." He said plainly.

"Right." Snow said

The two boys set off deeper into the Acropolis, taking care to avoid any unnecessary risks or battles, which was a fairly hard task considering that the ruins of the city practically crawled with monsters of several different types. Including a particularly nasty Undying Cieth by the name of Zenobia the Butcher. Fortunately, they were able to avoid any sort of scrap with the less-than-friendly wildlife. The two crept upon the building and Snow said,

"I'll go in first." Snow said "Light would _kill_ me if anything happened to you." With that being said, Snow took surprisingly quiet steps toward the white building until he disappeared into it. A minute later he poked a gloved thumbs-up out the arched entrance of the building.

Hope approached the building cautiously until Snow came into view. All the short boy could see was rubble from the partially caved in ceiling, a few broken or overturned pews and a podium in the center of the room with some sort of book on it. He walked up to it and flipped a few pages before flipping back to the cover.

"Can you make any of it out? It looks like just a bunch of lines to me." Snow said, stating the already obvious point that he couldn't read Pulsian writing.

Actually, he could make _some_ of it out. Thanks to Vanille anyways. In her excited stupor of telling him about her homeland on the Vestige, she started telling some about her language and what some of it meant. Hope had hardly thought that any of it would actually help then. He shrugged. Even little things had their uses. "It only says one word on the cover."

"What's that?" Snow said.

"Etro." Hope said with a measure of finality. Now whether the word or the book for that matter, carried any importance remained to be seen. They would have to take it back to Vanille to have it translated

"Well that sure doesn't tell us much." Snow said.

Hope shook his head. Snow was way too simple-minded sometimes. "It doesn't tell us anything at the moment, but that's why we're going to take it back to Vanille to translate it."

"How's a book gonna tell us how to rescue Sis and Fang?" Snow asked.

Hope was getting a little aggravated at this point. He really didn't feel like playing twenty questions. He bit back his anger as best he could and said "I don't _know_ Snow, but any lead we can get will help. It sure beats sitting on our butts and doing nothing." He winced. That had come out stronger than he had expected. Before Snow could talk back he quickly said "Sorry. I'm just a little bit frustrated."

Snow laughed loudly. "You've been hanging around Lightning too long. Her temper is starting to rub off on you."

Hope gave a weak smile before throwing the mysteriously titled book to Snow, who in turn, caught it and put it in his trench coat pocket. Suddenly, a piercing wail was heard. It was so high-pitched that Hope and Snow had to cover their ears. A second later it stopped, leaving the ruined cathedral deafeningly quiet. "What the heck was that?" Hope said in a high pitched whine.

"I don't know, but whatever it was it didn't sound so good." Snow said with a tone of warning. "We probably should've known better than to think that we could walk right in and take what we please."

"Do we go outside?" Hope said, although already knowing the answer. Whatever was out there didn't sound too happy with them at the moment, but if they sat there than they'd just be sitting ducks. The teenager tried to quell the tempest of fear within his heart, he swallowed heavily.

"We don't have any other choice at the moment." Snow said with a heavy sigh. "But hey, as long as you got me you'll be okay!" He said grinning like an idiot. Unfortunately, the teen didn't seem to believe him. Snow mentally sighed. _Actually I'm not so sure myself_ He thought. "Alright, let's go." The pair crept out of the building unsure and fearful of what they would find. A flash of pink, writhing tentacles told them all they needed to know.

Snow cursed.

…

Lightning ran after the pale-haired young man, knocking over many people on the way. Her target then disappeared into an alley up ahead of her. When she came upon the entrance of the alley she was extremely dismayed to find the man she was chasing gone, and in his place.

Scarecrows.

_Fuck._ She thought. The pale-haired warrior loathed them. She had ever since she came to this reality. Reality. What was it to her, now? The reality she once knew had been shattered like a glass and all sense of normalcy gone with it. She realized the fugitive life she once led, she wanted back. At least she was aware of her surroundings, at least she knew what to expect. Now, Lightning didn't have that luxury, and it gave her a hefty disadvantage.

A sharp, burning pain in her shoulder accompanied with a warm liquid running down her back pulled her into the present quickly. Cursing, the sergeant put a few fingers to her shoulder. Crimson stained her fingertips. Not good, and gesturing from the blood, the cut was fairly deep. Deciding quickly she could heal it later she reached for her gunblade and almost panicked when she realized one thing.

It wasn't there.

She'd given it to the guard before entering the city. Even though the pinkette was slightly disappointed that she didn't have her favorite battle companion with her, she had a backup plan. Lightning unzipped a pouch on her thigh and pulled out her survival knife that she had gotten from Serah as a birthday present. The revelation had released a pang of sorrow within her heart, she bit it down and with a quick flick of her wrist, the knife clicked into place, its perfectly polished blade glinting in the sunlight.

Lightning smirked. This was going to be fun. The scarecrows finally pounced on her. Holding the knife horizontally out in front of her she prepared to defend herself. Since, the knife wasn't even a quarter of the length of her gunblade she'd have a lot of weak spots to cover. A less than easy task, but she could manage. A Scarecrow slashed at her with it's blade horizontally, the soldier stepped back quickly and using her quickness to her advantage moved forward and stabbed it in what she could guess was the head. It disappeared in a cloud of black sand.

Another Scarecrow aimed to cut her right down the middle. Putting the knife above her head, steel met steel throwing up sparks. Lightning groaned in effort, the muscles in her arms and back screaming. With some force she pushed the Scarecrow to the side, making it stumble. Then she buried the blade in the demon and continued cutting horizontally, pale brown-green liquid spewing from the wound. It disappeared as well. Lightning let a smirk grace her lips. Her knife didn't have Gilgamesh Inc. stamped on the handle for nothing

The third proved to be a bit more difficult considering it was a demon she'd never seen before. It was some kind of reptile with a shield. It gave an ear-splitting shriek before it lunged at her with its razor-sharp claws. Barely having enough time to react, Lightning side-stepped quickly. She grimaced. This demon was a lot more agile than the other two and would prove hard to get a clean cut in. It cackled, beating on its shield, challenging her.

_It would probably be best to slow this one down._ She thought. The sergeant thought. She knew just the spell to do it too. The only problem was getting a good shot. "Come on!" Lightning taunted. Fortunately, it took the bait and lunged straight for her. Waiting until it was near enough, the pinkette shouted, "Slowga!" The ball of energy hit the demon dead on. Now, it seemed to be moving in slow motion. Lightning walked up to it and slit its throat quickly and then side-stepped out of the way just as the spell deactivated and the creature crashed to the ground.

Lightning walked over to a wall in the alley and leaned against it. It was very unusual for her to need a break, but the confrontation a few moments ago, took a lot out of her. It also didn't help that it was at least ninety degrees outside because of the island's subtropical climate. That made it especially warm outside. Too warm. Giving into her temptation, she took off her vest and unzipped her turtleneck. She debated taking it off entirely but with just her bra underneath it would just _beg_ for a comment from Dante. Lightning also removed her knuckled gloves and the black cloth underneath, putting them in the pouch on her thigh.

Replacing her vest, the sergeant started walking again. She had somebody she needed to track down. Walking throughout the alley, her blue eyes darted left and right for anything unusual. Eventually, she came to a dead end with no other alleyways.

"You're not as quiet as you think." A foreign voice said from behind her. Her eyes widened and she turned around nose-to-nose with a double-barreled pistol. Then all she heard was,

_Click._

BANG!

**End.**

**So that was a very fun chappy to write! I'm sorry if you notice any inconsistencies with the writing. I picked this chapter up and put it down at different times.**

**I finally introduced the rest of the FFXIII Crew, yay me! I probably should of done it sooner, but I wanted some plot development first. Yes, I DO think Vanille is the type to run off with the mouth. Do I get points for sexy Light near the end? I'm sorry but I can only dream of Light in a bra.**

**I hope I got into character ok. Share your opinion please, it really helps! Read and review!**

**-NMD15**


	5. A New Face

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Five

**A/N: Sorry guys meant to have this up much earlier but I didn't have a means to do it. My bad.**

**WARNING: Profanity and ass-kicking ahead. And sorta touchy feely-ness.**

Hope heard Snow curse which prompted him to ask, "It's not Zenobia is it Snow?" he ask is a shrill, whiny voice. The teenager felt fear rise and grip his heart once more, squeezing so tight he felt he couldn't breathe. Unfortunately, the blonde-haired man's reply only helped aid his fear.

Snow gave a curt nod.

"We can't fight that thing!" Hope said losing his composure. That doesn't go without saying he had very good reason to. "Even Light had trouble with one of those monsters!" The white-haired boy said remembering Lightning's battered and bloodied form after the fight with Gaiseric the Profane. Since the man didn't reply Hope kept on going. "How are we gonna fight that thing if even Light had trouble?"

For the first time in a good while, Snow lost his temper. "I don't _know_ okay! But it's either we stay here and wait for the others and watch them get killed, or we fight it ourselves right now and hope to get out alive. I guarantee if we don't make a move, it will." Hearing his own angry voice resonate off the walls of the cathedral and seeing Hope back up a few steps, Snow stopped instantly before saying, "Hope…" Snow trailed off not knowing what to say next.

In the next second Hope probably did the stupidest thing in his entire life. He ran. Toward the only way out.

Toward Zenobia the Butcher.

Whether he was overcome by stress, anger or just plain stupid he didn't know. The teen heard Snow yell at him and he felt the breeze of air when he jumped to stop him but missed. The next few seconds that went by involved pain. Lots of it. Hope remembered Zenobia's thorny vines wrapping around him tightly, the thorns penetrating several different places on his body. He was almost certain he was screaming, but the environment around him became blurry, and his hearing distorted. Almost like putting your ear to the surface of water. Finally, his acute suffering was ended when he passed out and sweet darkness overtook him.

_Hope's Dream…_

Hope opened his eyes slowly and looked around. The only thing he could make out was white, no buildings, no people, just plain white. In fact, he looked down to confirm his hunch. Yep, even the ground was white. At first, the teen had no recollection of what had brought him to this point then piece by piece his memory returned to him. He remembered being in the chapel with Snow, getting yelled at, and then running towards Zenobia.

Hope shook his head. What in Etro was he thinking? Suddenly a grim thought hit him. "Am I dead?" He said to nobody in particular but himself. The teenager was very startled to hear a reply, and even more so when he recognized who it was.

"No Hope." Came the sweet reply that could only be his mother's angelic voice.

He turned around rapidly to find the source of the voice, and hopefully his mother. Nothing. "Mom?" The white-haired boy said panicking.

"I'm here, Hope." And then suddenly there she was. The white-hair and emerald eyes he inherited were still there, but somehow she looked a little different. Glowing, almost.

Forgetting about the fine details he ran up to his mother and hugged her. But she seemed hesitant to hug back. Puzzled, he looked up at her and said, "Mom, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Hope." She said. "My, you've gotten so big! You're going to be taller than me soon." His mother said with a proud smirk.

Hope laughed, but was very alarmed when his mother's happy demeanor vanished and she started crying, tears cascading down her cheek. The trails of moisture leaving her pale skin a darker shade of white. "What's wrong?" He said, not bothering to hide the panic from his voice.

"I'm sorry, honey but it's not your time yet." She said sniffling. Then, without warning she let go of him and walked away, leaving him all alone in the smothering light.

_Reality…_

When Hope finally regained consciousness the soreness of his body weighed down on him like a ton of bricks. His stomach was churning like a blender on high and the sense of nausea was overwhelming. A few minutes later, after willing his stomach to a calm state he opened his eyes. Hope's vision was blurry as he looked around and after realizing he couldn't make anything out, he shut his eyes again. The teen decided to use his ears and his nose to decipher what was going on around him.

The first thing he heard was a fire crackling, and judging by how warm he was, Hope guessed he was relatively close to it, and he also could tell some kind of leather coat had been laid over him. Then, he smelled perfume. Not the kind of slutty strong perfume that all the girls at Palumpolum High wore, it smelled very different. It was subtle yet it had a husky pull to it. He also smelled something he couldn't put his finger on because it was so foreign to him. Cigarette smoke?

Suddenly, all at once the contents of his stomach (which wasn't much.) spilled out onto the ground next to where he lay. After a second, his savior finally spoke.

"I gave you the anti-venom but your still gonna be doing that for a while because of how many times you were stung." The mystery girl said. After hearing some steps and a thump on the ground next to where he was, he concluded she sat down next to him. "So tell me, what in the _fuck_ possessed you to run towards that thing?" She asked.

For a second, Hope was mentally taken aback. This girl, whoever she was obviously had a tendency to use cuss words. Not sure he could explain himself at the moment, he just said, "Eh, long story." Although he knew he owed her an explanation, she had just saved his life for crying out loud.

"I got time and so do you, you're gonna be stuck here a few days until you heal up." Came the quick and curt reply. This girl didn't seem to be the type to beat around the bush.

Hope sighed. His face paled as a realization donned on him. "I gotta get back to the others, Snow is gonna be so upset with me." He said, talking almost a thousand miles an hour. Then, he tried to sit up a little too quick and he yelled out in pain. Hope then felt a pair of gentle hands on his chest push him back down to a laying position, then the mystery girl said,

"Whoa. Stay still, your gonna pull something if you keep moving around like that." She said with her voice more than a little concerned. Sensing that he was adamant about not explaining why he ran toward Zenobia quite yet, she changed the subject. "Can I at least get your name?"

"Oh, uh yeah. It's Hope." The teenager said with a bit of a nervous edge to his voice. He had never been very good with girls at school. Hope usually tended to stay away from them and focus on his schoolwork. And every time he talked to one, he always sounded nervous and awkward.

"Hope, huh? That's a cute name. My name is Lucera." She said. "Are you ever gonna open your eyes? I'm pretty sure the world stopped spinning about an hour ago." Lucera said.

Doing as she said, Hope opened his eyes. His rescuer was extremely beautiful and only seemed to be about two to three years older than himself. Her hair was a deep shade of red tied back into a ponytail with her bangs hanging free in front. Her eyes were a lighter orange-ish brown shade which accented her hair quite nicely Her lips were lightly glossed with lip-gloss, and the cigarette in between them did nothing to hinder her beauty. In fact, Hope uncharacteristically thought it made her more attractive.

She wore a crimson one-piece outfit that had the top cut open to reveal _a lot_ of cleavage. The garment stopped at her thigh. The grieves that she wore were off to the side of her. The black trench coat he guessed was hers too. Without his permission, his eyes wondered back to her huge breasts. Hope felt his cheeks turn scarlet. "What's happening to me?" he said under his breath thinking she couldn't hear.

Having noticed his glance at her chest and his little comment afterwards, she took a hit of her cigarette and said, "It's simple. You're a teenager, its common to check a girl out." She said, thinking it was extremely cute how polite the boy in front of her actually was. His face turned into something apprehensive as he said in a very tentative tone,

"S-So you're not upset with me?"

"Of course not!" She said waving her hands in a dismissive motion. "Besides" She said as she pulled the trench coat off of him and pulled up his shirt, much to his embarrassment. "You're not too bad yourself." Lucera said as she looked as his developing abs. The look on the opposite teens face was priceless.

Hope felt like he was about ready to have a nosebleed and pass out again. He imagined his face was much redder than it was previously. "Thanks." He said as he laughed nervously. The white-haired boy wasn't sure if he liked Lucera just yet, but he could say she was growing on him. To him she didn't seem too bad, though she was very flirtatious. Which, again Hope couldn't say he minded. He closed his eyes and lay back on the ground. _Something's wrong with me_ he thought. When he opened his eyes again, he saw something across the cave that he hadn't noticed before. A wickedly curved pair of knives. Even though he knew the answer, he asked anyways.

"Are those knives yours?" Hope asked curious. He saw a noticeable amount of pain don on her features at the question, so he quickly said, "If you don't want to talk about it I understand."

Lucera looked in his eyes and saw nothing but innocent curiosity in the emerald spheres. She gave him a thankful smile and said, "They were my mothers. She gave them to me right before she went on a scouting trip, and well she never came back. Months later I found out she was killed by a man named Arius." She paused to let the information sink in and to take another long hit of her cigarette. "I pledged to kill him that day, but another man named Dante got to him before me."

"What then?" Hope asked, being as curious as a child being told a story, and also forgetting that the story he was being told was not a story at all.

Lucera couldn't resist laughing at Hope's childish antics. By the time she stopped laughing her face was as red as her hair. Getting back to the point and dawning a semi-serious tone she said "Well, I'm gonna kill him as soon as I see him." She said. "Only then will my mother get the closure she deserves."

The white-haired teen paused to absorb the information and then said, "Is that why you smoke?" She nodded slowly. "If it helps, my mother is dead too," Hope said biting back the pang of sadness in his heart caused by talking about the tragic event and also the weird dream he had. He questioned for a millisecond whether he should be sharing this information with her, but he then came to the conclusion that if she told some of her story than he would tell some of his. With no reply, he continued. "She died in an accident."

Lucera nodded, silently happy that somebody besides herself had to bear the pain of losing a loved one. She wasn't alone anymore. Deciding it was time for them to retire for the night she took one last hit of her cigarette and was about to stub it out when she noticed one thing. Hope was watching her every move with a particular interest. Formulating an idea in head, she inhaled once more, and crawled toward Hope on her hands and knees. When she was about three inches away from him, she blew the smoke in his face, nice and slow. Lucera almost thought the poor boy would have an aneurism because of how nervous and red he was.

Hope could swear he felt a wave of hormones go straight to his loins. Trying not to focus on what had just happened (even though it would be impossible for him to forget) he rolled over and pulled the trench coat over his head. As he went to sleep, he concluded that there _definitely_ was something wrong with him.

Meanwhile, Lucera stubbed out her cigarette and threw it in the fire. She smiled evilly. Her little plan had been perfect; she'd almost made the boy have a nosebleed. Content with herself for the moment she too rolled over and drifted off to sleep herself.

…

Lightning hadn't realized two things. One, she was still alive and two, she had her eyes closed so tight that they were starting to hurt. She opened her eyes thinking that she would be staring down the business end of a pistol, but she wasn't to her silent relief. Instead, her "target" (if you could call him that since the roles were reversed moments ago.) was staring at her with his arms crossed and a look that demanded an explanation and a good one too. After a few moments, apparently she hadn't answered quickly enough so he said,

"So, are you gonna tell me why you were so quick to follow me?" He asked, sounding like he wasn't in a very patient mood. A minute or two passed, and the young man got very impatient and said, "Okay, allow me to reiterate. Who are you and WHY were you following me?" He said saying each syllable as if who he was talking to was stupid. Still no reply. "Okay." The white-haired man said. This time he pulled out his double-barreled gun and loaded it with a sharp click of the hammer. Finally, he got a response out of the woman, but it definitely wasn't what he wanted.

"Nice gun." Was all she said. Then, suddenly she kicked the gun out of his hand. It skittered across the concrete some ten feet away from either of them. Quickly she grabbed his arm and twisted it, and then flipped him over her shoulder. He landed on the ground with a hard thud. To make sure he didn't move Lightning kept his arm twisted and then she planted a foot on his throat. Looking utterly astonished he said,

"Been a while since a girl has been able to get one up on me…" in a very constricted voice, mostly due to Lightning's well placed boot choking the air out of his windpipe. With no warning, the man lying on the ground spun on his back and used his feet to sweep the sergeant off her feet. She landed on the ground awkwardly with her ribs taking the brunt of the impact. Lightning had to restrain the urge to cry out. One or a few of her ribs were definitely bruised. Not a second later, she had an obsidian-colored blade to her jugular. Lightning began to hear her heart pounding in her ears.

_Thump,Thump,Thump,Thump_

The pink-haired woman tried her best to slow down her raging heart, if she didn't she would likely die of a heart attack..

"Nero!"

Lightning sighed. She never believed she would be so happy as to hear Dante's voice, no matter how annoying it was. Then something in her head clicked which left her utterly _furious_. Dante had used first names, and that would imply that he knew him. _I'm going to kill him! I swear. I'm going to fucking kill him._ As soon as the blade was lifted from her throat she made a bee line toward the red-clothed hunter. That is, if her ribs hadn't voiced their protest. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop the half-scream of pain that ripped forth from her throat. Fang ran over to her quickly, looking just about as concerned as Lightning had ever seen.

"Sunshine, what in the fuck were you thinkin'?" Fang said, pretty furious with the woman standing in front of her. Though, it was pretty hard to be upset when Lightning was in such pain. Not only did she have a few purple bruises on her body, there was a fairly deep cut in her right shoulder too. All in all, the sergeant looked like she was going to fall apart any second. "Lightning why?..." Fang said in nothing more than a whisper.

"Fang, I'm sorry." She said through painful huffs of breath. In truth, she didn't know why she was apologizing. But she decided not to question it until she got back to the shop.

"Now see, if you would have just stayed where I told you, this would've happened." Dante said, not in a particularly peachy mood himself. He and Nero exchanged a few brief words before Dante walked away presumably in the direction of the car. Nero went in another direction.

The pale-skinned woman was tempted to call after Dante. But Fang put a tan finger to her lips before she could get a word out. A few minutes later, Lightning finally gave in and leaned against Fang, letting her do the walking. As to whether leaning on Fang symbolized anything romantic or anything of the like, Lightning found one thing. She honestly didn't care. She gave up questioning her emotions, deciding that if her and the tan woman ever did get really close, or even romantic she wouldn't mind. It wasn't worth putting her heart and mind through the constant strain of denying her emotions.

The ride back to the shop was quiet and uneventful, but the pinkette was so exhausted all she could think about was getting some sleep. Five minutes later, using the Pulsian woman's shoulder as a pillow, she fell asleep.

**End.**

**That was a very fun chapter to write as well, it took a little longer though. Oh and I think I need to get this out there. Lucera and Hope will be getting sort of touchy feely in the next few chapters. Don't like it, too bad. Oh, by the way Lucera is seventeen and Hope is fifteen. Since it never did say when his birthday was.**

**May write backstory for Lucera much later, not sure yet. Gonna start trying to ease into Light and Fang's relationship now, probably too fast, but I think I'm going a good pace. Looks like Lucera has a beef with Dante. These two will meet later.**

**I'm sorry for Light sort of getting her butt kicked. She's very strong but not invincible. And come on, Nero's a half-demon. Speaking of half-demons I don't think I got into character with them very well. Sorry.**

**Read and review and see ya next time!**

**-NMD15**


	6. Nervousness and Horomones

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Six

**WARNING: Multiple sexual instances in this chapter. If you are not mature enough to read this leave now. I DO NOT want to here in the reviews about how you thought it was disgusting. I don't have time for twelve-year-olds.**

**Hobey ho, let's start the show!**

When the trio finally got back to the inner city night had fallen and the stars were over their heads. The heat still resonated off of the concrete from earlier that day making it uncomfortably warm. Even with the windows down Fang was sweating and she was sure Lightning was too. Not even sleep could ward off the menace that was the heat. She spared a glance at the sleeping woman. The tan Pulsian watched with a specific interest, a bead of sweat start at the sergeant's chin and slide down her body until it disappeared into her generous bosom. Fang felt her breathe quicken and a tingle pass through her body. She looked away ashamed.

Dante for the most part had been quiet throughout the entire ride from the castle city. The only place they stopped was a gas station to get gas. The red-haired hunter then mumbled several complaints about the price saying it was ridiculous and debating whether he should just drive off because he knew nobody would catch him. In the end he told the cashier to go fuck himself. Hardly acceptable in Fang's opinion but she guessed that the heat was getting to everybody. For the first time since the incident at the gas station he spoke up.

"Um. Ahh, I'm not good with this sort of thing, but I'm sorry for how I acted earlier today. Yah know, about Lightning not doing what I said?" Dante said pausing on some words making him sound like a nervous child. Fang didn't say anything so he sighed and began drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. A little more than a minute after she spoke up sounding extremely weary as she did so.

"It's not entirely your fault." The tan woman said putting a hand over her eyes in a fixed habit. "In fact, it's all my fault. I was the one who told her to open that damn gate in the first place. If it weren't for me, we probably wouldn't have ended up in this whole big mess." She absent-mindedly looked at her brand. _And with these things ticking away, we don't have much time to dawdle around wasting time._ She hardly expected a reply from Dante but she was proven wrong.

"Well, I've had my share of fuck-ups but my worst fuck-up is one that I can't fix." Dante thought back to his brother, Vergil, slashing at his hand as he fell deep into the bowels of Hell. The memory unfortunately agitated the permanent gashes on his heart and soul. It squeezed his stomach and shook it around, leaving him nauseous and dizzy at the same time. As if culminating all of his emotions into a single short sentence he mumbled, "I just wish I could've saved him." Fang appeared not to have heard his last sentence and just nodded. The red-haired hunter pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. As a result of his most recent solemn memory, a spell of dizziness came over him and he had to grab the car to steady himself.

"Hey, a little help over here? Sunshine weighs as much as a bloody Juggernaut." Fang called over to him. Snapping out of his stupor he said,

"What?"

The sari-wearing woman sighed. Dante had the attention span of Vanille. She raised her voice fairly loud this time and said, "Get your stupid ass over here and help me." Fang winced. Ouch. That had been really bitchy. She then realized what she said could've caused an argument. And after the show of fireworks at the gas station, the Pulsian concluded that an argument was the last on the list of the things she needed at the moment. Fang had much more important things on her mind, but the most prominent was healing the half-broken soldier that she was half-carrying.

Her half-broken soldier. _Oh crap, better not use possessives just yet._

To her surprise, Dante's reply was actually calm and understanding. He held out his hands and said, "Chill, I know we're both pretty po'd about what happened today. Let's just get her inside on the couch and we'll decide what to do from there." He then walked over to Lightning's sorta limp body and put an arm over his shoulder and helped walk her inside, thankfully without irritating the pinkette's injuries. After Lightning was laid on the couch Dante went upstairs to his bedroom to lay down for a short while, not to sleep (he was far too restless for that) but to relax.

Fang had no complaints. The red-haired hunter had shown her where the first aid kit was. Although Vanille was the better out of the two as far as medicine went, the older sibling had some experience as well. The tan woman smiled fondly as she remembered Vanille when she was around twelve. One time she had gotten a poison sting from one of the Triffids around Oerba. The village apothecary was out of the village tending to other business at the time, so fifteen-year-old Fang snuck into his office and got the anti-venom. She administered it as quick as possible, the venom wasn't deadly but it did cause a lot of vomiting. Vanille had tried to be tough but it just ended in her crying a lot. She smiled again and looked down as Lightning stirred.

"Uhhh…" The sergeant moaned. Her eyes fluttered open, dilated eyes searching the room frantically before she seemed to realize where she was and visibly relaxed. The beautiful woman then closed her eyes again and let out a content sounding sigh. Despite her body feeling like it had been chewed up a spit out, and several metallic springs stabbing her in the back, Lightning felt oddly at ease. Even though the very woman she longed for was right in front of her. The pinkette wanted to tell Fang how much she wanted her, but she wasn't sure if the opposite woman liked her that way quite yet. Sure Fang was bisexual and sure she obviously liked her, but it was hard to tell whether it was actual longing or just lust. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of her wounds stinging, white hot. Lightning groaned audibly. "How long have I been out?"

"Since earlier today. Don't worry your pretty little head, love. Ya didn't miss too much." Fang said, with a tone of affection in her voice. "Alright, up sunshine we gotta get you healed up and out 'ere on the sofa ain't a good place. It doesn't exactly look to friendly anyways. Give me your arm, I'll help you." Lightning shrugged her off and tried to get up on her own, but after her knees almost giving out she went ahead and accepted her help.

After making it to the bathroom and hearing the lock click, Lightning suddenly felt very nervous. She and Fang were all alone. Together. The two woman had been alone before while they needed to heal their wounds, but most of the time Fang was on the receiving end of the healing. Not only that, but back then everybody else was around and she had so many other things to focus on. She guessed that she'd never been alone with anybody long enough for feelings to develop, but now things were different. Uncomfortably different.

"Take your vest off." Came the oddly straightforward reply from the sari-wearing woman. Lightning did so slowly, almost nervously. Having removed the vest the sergeant sat before Fang in her turtleneck with only her bra underneath. The tan woman took the liberty of helping the opposite woman out of the turtleneck, leaving her in only her bra. Absentmindedly, Fang admired the pinkette's bust, having to be at the very least a high C. Returning to the task at hand; she clicked the first aid kit open and retrieved a needle and thread. "Sorry, Light. This may sting a little."

And hurt it did. It took all the energy the sergeant could muster not to scream. The feeling of having her skin forcefully tugged back together was a very painful one, leaving a sense of nausea in the pit of her stomach. She had been prepared for this in the GC, but just because she was prepared for it didn't mean it hurt any less. Readiness does not equal painlessness. After an eternity, the stitching was done, but Fang's next request would be the most painful of all, even though there was no pain involved.

"Sunshine, I kinda need you to take off your bra." Fang said. "You can cover yourself but I need to see just how bad the damage to your ribs is."

Lightning's heart nearly stopped right then and there. She was going to have to expose herself to Fang. With anybody else (except maybe Snow) she would've been all business and done it, but there was something about the Pulsian that made her spine turn to jelly. With slow, shaky hands she reached behind her back and undid the clasps of the bra and freed her tits from their claustrophobic confines. No sooner did her bra slip off her shoulders; the pinkette's arms flew in front of her chest. Lightning cursed her more than generous cup size.

The lance-wielding huntress had to try really hard not to let her jaw hit the floor. Just before Lightning's arms went in front of her chest, Fang saw just a peek of a perky, light-pink tinted nipple. Feeling something drip down her leg, the Pulsian could swear she could get off right there. Somehow getting back to the task at hand, she walked toward Lightning and turned her sideways by the elbow very gently. Lo and behold, a dark, very purple bruise sat just below the sergeant's left tit. "Ouch." Fang mumbled. Suddenly she got an idea. One that she was sure Lightning would like, whether she admitted it or not.

The pinkette was very unaware of Fang's 'idea', however, and just sat there beet red at the opposite woman's very intimate view of her body. Things were about to get even more intimate unfortunately for her. Alarm suddenly darted its way up her spine as she felt a very wet appendage moving up and down her upper left side. Lightning almost moaned. The opposite woman must've got the hint because she moved the now unresisting arms away from the sergeant's bust. This time, the blue-eyed woman let out a slight, high-pitched moan when she felt a warm mouth close around her tit. As Fang's skillful tongue continued its dirty work, moans now worked their way from Lightning's mouth like musical notes. Suddenly something inside the pinkette's brain clicked.

This didn't feel right. At least not at the moment. Getting her mouth back under her control, she said as nice as she could, "Fang, stop." As if realizing what she had done, the raven-haired woman picked up the first aid kit and mumbled a quick 'sorry' before walking out the door and leaving Lightning alone in the bathroom.

Almost as soon as Fang left the room, it got colder. Lightning couldn't resist feeling bad after the way the opposite woman left. The raven-haired woman looked so crushed. The pinkette had obviously hurt her feelings putting her clothes back on, the sergeant headed out of the bathroom toward the kitchen. Fang was nowhere around and Lightning didn't hear her go upstairs. 'Must've gone for a walk or something.' The pinkette thought. She strode past the lobby and into the kitchen. Opening the fridge and grabbing the Jack Daniels, she took a big long swig straight from the bottle.

"You know I've had my mouth on that before right?"

Dante suddenly said from out of nowhere almost making Lightning drop the bottle. The sergeant suddenly felt a sour feeling in the back of her throat. Ew, Dante germs. That was almost like kissing him. Lightning just went ahead and stopped thinking about it before she vomited. Instead of accepting the overwhelming urge to shudder, she replied in a clever insult. "Yeah, well I bet your mouth has been on a lot of other things too huh?" She smirked at his open-mouthed reaction. "Speechless? Can't believe you just got told off by a girl? Well, get used to it. You're not the only one with a smart mouth."

Lightning left the shocked devil hunter in the kitchen, taking the bottle of JD with her. If she hadn't known better she would've thought she was on fire. In the good way of course. The sergeant walked back upstairs. When she got to the room, she laid down on the mattress. Lightning laid there for twenty minutes before realizing something. She was horny. Very horny. Cursing under her breath, she reached under her skirt and felt along her black lace panties. Using her nail she scratched just under her bellybutton, enjoying the sensation that was sent straight to her needy core.

More. She needed more. Taking her vest off and unzipping her turtleneck she felt under one of the cups of the bra with her finger. The needy woman rubbed, flicked and pinched at her tit. Twisting her tit slightly, she rubbed herself through her panties. Lightning began leaking like a broken faucet. She began to wonder why she was doing this, but her muddled thoughts were lost in her dirty deeds. Slipping a hand under her panties, she used a finger and rubbed and pushed on her clit, getting her juices all over her fingers. Remembering what Fang had done earlier, Lightning's sensations doubled. Now she rapidly thrust a finger in and out of her wet folds, moaning softly at each reintroduction of her finger. Five minutes later, she sprayed all over her hand.

Feeling the orgasm wear off, she chastised herself with a disappointed thought. 'Am I really this desperate?' Shaking her head, Lightning wiped her sticky, wet hand on the bed, hoping Fang wouldn't notice later. Taking another long swig of JD she rolled over and tried to go to sleep, forgetting about the Pulsian native for a moment, if only just for a moment.

**End.**

**First of all, I'm sorry this chapter took so long guys! I got a bad case of writer's block, so I wrote a one-shot to be rid of it. It worked. I guess even Light can be sexually deprived huh?**

**I'm aware that I didn't get back to Lucera, Hope, or Snow in this chapter. That'll be at the start of next chapter. Also, there were multiple sexual instances in this chapter; I hope they didn't make the story too smutty. Sorry for the huge warning at the beginning of the chapter, I hate dealing with twelve-year-olds.**

**Sorry about the length of the chapter. Thought it was appropriate to stop it here. And if you are wondering about saying at the beginning of the chap, It actually belongs to D.J. Machale. Writer of the Pendragon Series. Awesome series!**

**Read and Review please!**

**-NMD15**


	7. Too Many Problems Without Solutions

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Seven

It was well past sundown when Snow's slumping form made its way across the Steppe. Normally, even he knew better to stay out past sundown but unfortunately with Hope running off, the blonde-haired man had been forced to scour the Acropolis for any sign of the teenager. He found one, and it was good, but he'd still have to face Sazh. 'And now I'm gonna have to go back to Sazh and tell him what happened. Everybody's gonna hate me…' Snow thought. A sudden rustle in the bushes to his left caught his attention. 'Probably should've taken Hope and Sis's advice about being quiet' Putting his fists up in a neutral stance, Snow readied for whatever could possibly lurking in the brush. Snow's relief was instantaneous when the familiar sight of a big yellow bird came into view. It gave a soft 'kweh' as some sort of peace offering.

The blonde-haired man let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and said, "Nearly scared me half to death big guy." He walked up to it and patted its head. Suddenly thinking it would be better, Snow walked over to the side and mounted the choccobo, (misspelled?) feeling it sink with his weight. He apologized to it as if it was another human being. "Sorry, birdy. I know I'm WAY over your weight limit" The yellow bird made a throaty sound as if grudgingly agreeing.

Although he was grateful for not having to hoof it back to camp, at the same time Snow dreaded the fact that eventually he'd make it back to camp and have to tell Sazh and Vanille what had happened. It was irritably warm and sticky outside and Snow still felt a chill go down his spine because of the moments to come. When the blonde-haired made it back to camp a tightness began to creep its way into his chest. The feeling all but intensified when he saw Sazh and Vanille standing outside the rest of the tents.

"Is Hope on that bird with you?" Sazh said, his voice laden with suspicion. He knew the pair of boys had been gone way too long to be reasonable. It may have just been the intuition he seemed to gain over the years, but something didn't seem to be right. When Snow dismounted the choccobo, his intuition was all but confirmed. 'Damn, sometimes I wish I wasn't right all the time' he thought "Where's Hope?"

Snow sighed heavily. The afro-headed man had figured it out. "Look, let me explain—"

"So wait a damn minute, you tellin' me I left Hope with you ONLY for him to go missing too? Bad enough we gotta deal with Lightning and Fang gone missing, but now Hope too? Good god almighty…" The civilian air pilot said muttering the last sentence under his breath.

Like a scolded dog Snow's head hung low but he raised it again to say, "Let me explain."

"No! Why should I? All your gonna do is come up with some cockamamie excuse!" Sazh fired back.

"God damn it! If you would let me explain I'd tell you what happened! But I guess you don't wanna know what we found, because it might be a clue as to where Sis and Fang are!" Snow said, half-way losing his composure for the second time that today. Lowering his voice to a considerable volume he said, "Also I found something that says that Hope might be ok.. Can we go inside first?" Sazh nodded. Once they were inside, Snow pulled out a crumpled up note and handed it to Sazh.

The older man's eyes scanned over the hastily scrawled note in suspicion. He sighed, sounding relieved and annoyed at the same time. Putting a few fingers to his face, the man said "It says in this here note that Hope is okay and he is with me. Whoever that is, and it also says that he or she will bring him back when he is healed." Vanille piped up beside the men and said,

"That's good right?"

"Not exactly. We don't have time to pay back favors, especially since we're already paying one off." Sazh said pointing to his chest where his brand was to emphasize his point. "It'd be best for us right now to just wait this out and hope that the person taking care of Hope doesn't want anything in return. And as for you..." The black man said walking over to Snow. "You'd better be happy your still alive because if Lightning were here you'd be eating dirt. Sazh shook his head. He was getting too old for this crap. "So what did you find?"

Snow pulled out the book titled _Etro_ and tossed it to Vanille, who juggled it in her hands for a second before actually catching it. Then her face brightened as she said,

"I remember this book! They had quite a few copies at the library in Oerba!" Vanille said clapping her hands excitingly.

"Could you translate it for me then?" Snow said. "Hope said it may lead to finding Lightning and Fang." In all truth the blond-haired man had no clue how the dusty book would help find the two women, but he guessed that it was better than nothing. Even if they were grasping at straws. Very, very fine draws. Although above all of his worries, he hoped that Hope was alright. Snappy out of his thoughts he turned back to Vanille.

"So you'll do it?"

A stubborn look crossed Vanille's face as she hummed to herself. In an unusually serious voice she said, "I can, but it'll take a bit." Then gaining her cheerful demeanor back she said, "If you can wait a bit I can do it!" Even though she looked cheerful on the outside Vanille was very worried on the inside. She'd read this book many times during her former life in Oerba. She mentally shrugged. That was a hundred years ago, maybe rereading it she could discover something she missed before. Or at least she hoped so. Fang depended on it. She steeled her determination. She would do it for her pseudo-sister. But then that made her sound selfish. Shaking her head, she thought 'I'll do it for Lightning too!'

Snow had saw her random head shaking and asked, "Are you okay Vanille?" It took her a minute to process anyone was talking to her before she answered back with a 'yes'. Snow didn't believe her but he decided not to press the issue.

Sazh shook his head. "Alright we've had a long night. Lets get a half-decent nights sleep and we can start on things tomorrow. Deal?" Receiving no objections he said, "Okay goodnight! Snow shoo." He said making a shooing motion with his hands. The big man left without a word, and a few minutes later both occupants of the tent were laying on the ground, both under either their jacket or a animal pelt. Suddenly the unnamed choccobo chick poked out of his afro and flew in front of his face. Sighing he said,

"We can never get a break, huh?" The chick chirped its usual cheerful chirp in response. Sazh chuckled. "You never were one to voice your opinion." The choccobo chick flew into his face at that remark, golden feathers everywhere. "Okay, okay. Sorry"

"Sazh?" Vanille's voice said suddenly breaking the silence.

"Mhmm?" He hummed.

"Do you think Fang, Lightning and Hope are okay?"

"Lightning and Fang, definitely. Hope, well, I ain't so sure. I hope so. But we really can't tell right now. All we can do is sit here, translate that fancy book o' yours and hope he comes back in one piece." He pointed a finger at Vanille and said, "Now, don't you be worryin'. Leave that to the adults. Okay?"

"Okay." She said and rolled over on her side and was magically off to sleep.

"Just like that huh?" Sazh said looking up at the top of the tent with a hand on his stomach. "I wish I could fall asleep that fast."

…

Hope cracked open his eyes and immediately shut them from the blinding sun. The sun could be just as bright on Cocoon, but not even it matched the intensity of the actual sun. It, just like everything else on Pulse, seemed feral and unforgiving. Yet, again just like Pulse, it could be oddly beautiful. He remembered a time when he and Lightning were alone after a Cieth stone mission and they both had their feet in the water of one of the Steppe's many lakes. It had been incredibly hot that day. The memory stuck out even more because that was right after the fight with Geiseric. Unfortunately the memory reminded him of how much he truly missed Lightning. Shaking his head, he resolved that being a lovesick teenager wouldn't help.

He shivered. At his guess it was only around the mid fifties but it was still too cool for his liking. And that was when he noticed the immediate presence of a body. Looking down, he realized Lucera was next to him, body to body. So close Hope was almost certain there was no room for any air to get through. He was even more terrified however, when he realized where his hand had fallen. It was right on top of one of Lucera's breasts. Feeling all the blood rush to his face, Hope got out from under the black trench coat and backpedaled furiously until he hit a wall with an 'oof'.

"Get your ass back here! You were nice and warm. Especially your hand on my boob." Came the groggy reply from the red-haired teen. In response of the absence of his body heat, she turned around and faced him, her orange-brown eyes melting a hole right through him. Getting up with a grunt she walked over to him and flicked him on the nose and said, "Your too cute." Then pinning him between the wall, she asked a simple innocent question. "So are you feeling any better?"

Somehow managing to keep his composure he answered her and said, "Yeah, but..." Hope was immediately interrupted by his stomach growling very harshly. He gave a quick smile and scratched his head nervously and laughed. She smiled and blew in air in his face before walking across the cave to retrieve her knives and her grieves. The white-haired teen took note of how her breath smelled minty despite the fact she seemed like she was a chain smoker.

Picking up her trench and putting it on she said, "I'll get you something to eat, but you gotta stay here." Lucera said. Secretly she didn't want the teen getting hurt anymore, and she wasn't too inclined to trust that Hope was well enough to get out. Lucera wasn't very surprised when the teen piped up in resistance. Although, she didn't expect the angle at which he was going to go about it.

"Please? I'm dying to get out. And besides, I feel fine." Knowing that that alone wasn't enough to back up his claim he continued saying, "Not only that but I'm the best magic user here, and I can heal you if you ever get hurt."

"No, Hope." The red headed girl said in an unusually stern voice. Sounding as if she were his mother.

Crossing his arms and gaining a smirk he said, "What do you care? You haven't even known me for a day. What's it matter?"

The demon huntress raised her brow in annoyance. "Touche." Sighing and putting a hand between her eyes she caved. "Fine you can go. Just stay close to me. You do anything stupid and I'll cut off your poor excuse for a pair, got it?"

Not missing a beat, the teen stooped to her level and said, "How do you know I've got a poor excuse for a pair? For all you know they may just be the best you've ever seen."

Lucera blushed in total shock that she had been topped by the teen she deemed innocent. Although the shock from the teen's words hadn't worn off yet, she put her hands on her hips and said, "Wow, Hope. You should smirk like that more often. It's sexy." Seeing his mouth drop down to the floor, she smirked herself. There wasn't anybody that was allowed to top her, not even Hope. Returning to the task at hand she said, "Okay lets get going before you die of hunger over there."

The trip across the Steppe wasn't too energy consuming. The monsters, or at least the ones they ignored, had seemingly gone out of their way to keep clear of their path. Lucera gained a smirk as she finally laid her eyes on a monster that would keep them fed for quite a while. It was a Giant Silver Lobo. Drawing her knives she places them in front of her crisscrossing. "Envy, Agony you two ready?" Hope was going to protest but she was already zipping across the Lobo's body at inhuman speeds, a cut appearing almost every time she disappeared. In no time flat, the Lobo fell with a grunt.

"Wha-Wha-What are you?" Hope said stuttering. More than a little afraid of her little display of power. He backed up a foot or two and tripped over his own two feet and fell. As she approached he continued scooting backwards and stopped when he hit a piece of rock. His breathing increased as she sat down next to him.

"It's hard to explain." She said sounding somewhat hurt. Pulling a cigarette and a lighter magically from in between her breasts, she lit the cigarette, took a drag, and started to explain. "Remember when I told you about my mother?"

Hope hesitantly nodded.

"Well, truth is. I'm descended from a clan of protectors. We protect the Vie De Maril. Which is clanspeak for 'those with the blood of the devil'" The red-haired teen flicked some ash at the ground and waited for the information to sink in. "Well, when I was born there was an uprising between one of our clan members and Arius. That clan member was a woman named Lucia, which is the woman I'm named after, though only to a point. You following me so far?"

The teen nodded, his horror forgotten.

"When my mother gave me her knives she explained to me that she was an experiment of Arius with demon blood in her. She also explained to me..." Lucera's voice cracked as she continued. "That for this reason she may not come back. I was too naïve." Finally a tear slid down her cheek before she hastily wiped it away with a trembling hand.

Hope looked down at the ground, the look of disbelief only slightly present on his face.

As a final act of proof, she took the white-haired teenagers hand and placed it on her chest. "You feel that? That is the same heart that's beating in your chest right now. I'm the same as you."

After a minute, Hope spoke again. Though this time the fear in his voice gone. "What about your father?"

Lucera scooted closer to Hope and this time the teen didn't scoot away. "From what I was told my father was a man of the clan. He was stupid. By the time I was born he was already dead. He died when he and a few other clansman tried to raid one of Arius's compounds in the city.

"My father is a Sanctum official in our home town of Palumpolum. Him and I aren't very close. I spent most of my life living with mom and when she died, well, that's close to around the time I became a l'cie. Last time I saw him, we were staying at his, _our_ house. Later that night, Sanctum raided the house and we tied him up so the government wouldn't treat him as a traitor. I hope he's alright." the small teenager said.

"Well, you'd better spend as much time with him as you can, because you never know when he'll be gone." Lucera said flipping her cigarette into the grass.

Hope watched as a remnant of a tear slid down Lucera's cheek. He reached up a finger and wiped it away. Suddenly he was grabbed by his shirt and met the opposite girls lips with abrupt force. Instead of making her stop, he put an arm around her waist and allowed her to continue.

Her tongue suddenly forced its way past his lips with no trouble and began dancing with his own. She got even more ambitious when she put a hand on his hip and let her fingers dance along his lithe frame. Lucera then dared to play with the waistband of his pants.

That was were Hope decided to put the breaks on it. With some manner of self control he pried his lips from hers. In barely a whisper he said, "Stop" He then got up and began walking away in the direction that they came.

Feeling slightly hurt, Lucera got up and dragged the Lobo by the tail all the way back to the cave. After ripping the sinew from the animals various muscles, she ripped a sizable chunk from the Lobo. And put it over the freshly made fire, courtesy of Hope. After they ate, they retired for the night, both persons keeping their distance.

**End.**

**First and foremost, I'm sorry for the RIDICULOUSLY long wait that was caused by nothing more that writers block.**

**This chapter was definitely not my best, but it was okay I guess. Regarding to the Vie De Maril. I think it's actually Latin since Lucia is based off is based off of Saint Lucy who allegedly helped Dante in the Divine Comedy.**

**I hope I didn't make Lucera too slutty. It's supposed to happen that way though so don't worry.**

**Thanks for reading and I'll try to update sooner. Review please! Seriously I'm tired of getting a crap ton of views but only one or two reviews!**

**-NMD15**


	8. Oh, Alcohol

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Eight

Fang wiped her sweaty forehead with an equally sweaty hand, cursing the fact that is was so hot. Even after midnight. She had already let her sari fall to her waist, exposing the black tank top she wore underneath. She needed to get some sewing materials and make a summer outfit. To be wearing her baggy sari with everything underneath was severally impractical. A summer outfit would not only be cooler, but it may also attract Lightning. But then again, after the stunt she pulled in the bathroom earlier, she doubted the sergeant would talk to her, let alone look at her.

After Lightning's rejection of her advances, she'd left. Leaving for the only place that would allow her to drown her memories. Yeah, you guessed it. The bar. As she walked along the alley, she thought of how ironic it was for someone as headstrong as her to have fallen so far. Never had she ever tripped so much over getting rejected. Then again, the more she thought about it, she knew why. Fang had never been rejected. Because she had never fallen for anyone. Lightning was the first. Fang was attracted to everything about her. There were so many things that she could point out about the woman.

The way she smirks right before she's won, her determination in the face of the impossible, her ability to keep a level head, the way she's able to maintain a positive outlook on things even when they look bleak. And then, Fang smirked to herself as she thought, 'There's always that rocking body of hers' The boys back in Oerba, were just that. Boys. They had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They were a bunch of immature meat heads that thought through their ass more than anything else. Lightning outweighed them in every way.

Fang would never get to enjoy those qualities again because of the stunt she pulled. Thus the reason she was punishing herself. The Pulsian liked to enjoy a drink every once in a while, but she wasn't a compulsive drinker. Though, in times like this, what more was there to do? Right now, a bottle of alcohol was the equivalent of a Buddhist man achieving his life long goal of Nirvana. Okay, that was a bit much. But the pulsian would give anything to sever the chains to her most recent memories. To forget her stupid blunder and salvage her relationship with Lightning.

The raven-haired huntress came across the strip club her and Lightning had gone to earlier. It was as lively as ever. Of course, that was probably because it was a Friday night. Several people hung around the entrance of the club. Some sat on the curb and a few shared drunken chatter. All of them were illuminated by the bright red-pink neon sign that read 'Love Planet' in not-so-pretty cursive lettering. She walked into the club ignoring the whooping and cat-calls that she got from the guys. Throughout the club she could see pole dancers dancing, giving lap dances, and generally being the sluts they were paid to be. Walking straight up to the bar, she tapped on the stained wood to get the bartender's attention.

"Well, I think I saw you here the other night!" The friendly bartender said while cleaning out a glass with a rag. She smiled,

"You may wanna get used to seeing me 'ere. I'm probably gonna be one of your best customers." Fang said, enjoying the fact the bartender wasn't a douchebag like most of the guys that came here.

"I don't think so." He then put a hand to the side of his mouth and said in a hushed voice, "Remember the guy Dante? Well, he comes here to get shit-faced all the time. He was just here last night. I've seen some of the work he does in the towns newspapers. Really messed up stuff. Don't blame him one bit. Speakin' of him, did you get in touch with him?"

The pulsian wasn't about to tell him that they were now _living _with him, but she would humor him a little bit. "Yeah, we met up with him. Seems like the kinda guy we were lookin' for. But he's one hell of a pervert."

The bartender laughed heartily at that. "Yup, that's him all right. But don't let his personality fool you. He's saved all of our asses in this town. Dante's a little rough around the edges but he's a nice guy. The only reason I know so much is because I'm the only one that talks to him. Everyone else treats him like he's grown a third head."

This sounded nothing like the white-haired devil. The man in question was outspoken to a fault. Then why was he taking so much crap from the people he was actually saving? She made a mental note in her brain to question him about this whenever she got back to the shop.

"So. What kind of liquor you looking for? People don't just come to a club to charm the bartender you know."

Fang smirked. She liked this bartender. "Your right. Got anything with a lot of alcohol that burns when it goes down? If you say no, I would say your bullshittin' me. I mean come on, you've got to at least have one of everything on that shelf behind you."

It was the bartender's turn to smirk. "I think I've got just the thing for you. Ever heard of Hot Damn?" Fang shook her head. "Too hot for me, but its just what your looking for. Since I get the feeling your gonna get plastered tonight, how about I just sell you a bottle?

Fang nodded her head. "How much will it cost me?"

"Twenty dollars. If it were me I would just _give_ the bottle to you, but that hurts the business and my boss would have my ass."

"That's fine." She fished out the money. The huntress smiled widely to herself. Apparently Dante had forgotten to clean out those gym shorts of his. Fang gave the money to the bartender, he nodded, gave her more bills and an assortment of coins. Then finally he gave her the bottle.

"Oh, and I don't mind if you walk around the club with it, just don't spill it. Also, I wouldn't recommend fucking any of these girls without protection first."

"How did you know?" Fang said, slightly surprised that the bartender read her so easily.

"Well, its not like people to just sit and enjoy liquor at the bar either. My name is Randy by the way."

"Fang." She said to him before walking off. Despite what Randy said, she was going to sit down by one of the poles and watch a pole dancer dance. She popped open the bottle of whiskey and took a swig. The burn in her throat was almost too hot, yet the faint taste of cinnamon kept her hooked on the strong liquor. Grimacing, she mentally smiled. This was exactly what she had meant. Soon enough she was feeling a nice buzz come on. After she had been there for at least twenty minutes all other spectators left and she was the only one watching. About five minutes later, the dancer came down from the pole and walked up to her and kissed Fang on the neck repeatedly.

"Lets go to one of the rooms in the back." She whispered huskily in the pulsian's ear.

"How much do you charge?" The raven-haired woman said to her. She'd barely managed to get the words out of her mouth without tripping over them. It wasn't the alcohol's fault either.

"Usually, I'm pretty expensive. But your cute and that accent you got is very sexy. I wouldn't mind giving you a free fucking." The dancer said practically dragging Fang out of the chair. She led them through a narrow hallway with rooms on either side before stopping at the one at the very end of the hall. The door itself looked very sturdy so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone interrupting. With a click the door opened and the two were in the room. Then another click and they were all alone with the noise of the club far away.

The tan woman didn't even have time to take in the setting of the room before she was shoved on a very soft bed with the mystery dancer on top of her. Surprisingly said dancer had the decency to ask her name before fucking her senseless. "What's your name?"

The sari-wearing woman said, "Fang." In a hazy voice absolutely dripping with lust. "Yours?" She said again, finding she didn't have the ability at the moment to make a complete sentence. Not that she cared to know the mystery womans name, but she was just trying to return the common courtesy. Although she knew the woman on top of her wanted it as much as she did. She could tell by the wet spot on her tank top where 'coincidentally' the woman's loins were. Speaking of the mystery girl, she was very pretty. Not slutty pretty, the sort of pretty that shouldn't be anywhere near a strip club. She had long brown-blonde hair, naturally plump lips, high cheekbones, and pearly white teeth. The most attractive thing about her though were her deep green eyes. Beautiful, but not near as beautiful as Lightning. _I wonder what she would think if she knew I was doing this... _Fang thought.

The stripper in spite of her pearly white teeth, smiled shyly only showing a flash of white. "Fang? That's exotic. My stage name is Ariel, but my actual name is Jane." She leaned down into the crook of the pulsian's neck and began kissing on it again nice and slow. "What brings a pretty girl like yourself to a club like this?"

"I could ask you the same thing. You don't look like the type of girl to work at a club like this." the raven-haired woman replied while at the same time craning her neck to the side to give the girl known as Jane more room.

Jane groaned into Fang's neck at that comment. "I wouldn't be caught in this dump if I didn't have to be." After this, she stopped her assault on the tan woman as switched to just laying on top of her and stroking her jaw with a thin finger. "See, I have a boy named Julian. His dad, the no good piece of shit, left we when he was born. After a few months I couldn't pay the bills and I had to become a dancer. It pays great don't get me wrong, but getting called a whore and slut all the time gets me down. But Julian's happy so I'm happy."

"I knew ya didn't belong in this club. You take too much care of yourself it looks like. Half of these girls look like drug addicts" Fang commented. Her sense of lust was gone, leaving no vestiges of desire in its place. The alcohol's buzz was still there, but she could now speak coherently at least.

"They _are._" Jane said with some emphasis. "It makes me sick just being around them. I'm probably the only one with a justifiable reason to be here. The rest of them are only here to pay for whatever drug they're addicted to. That, or they just want to fuck. Speaking of fuck..." She took Fang's hand and moved it down her chest and between her legs. "Isn't that what you came here for. I can tell a sexually frustrated person when I see one. And you've got it bad."

Once again, her hormones returned in full swing, going straight to her clit, making it pulse and leak needily. Imitating Jane's actions, she took a hand and put it in between her legs and rubbed the dancer's finger on her needy center. In response, Jane's nimble fingers slipped into Fang's black lacy panties, rubbing and pushing on the small button at the top of her pussy. Listening to the tan woman moan silently under her breath.

"Oh yeah, you've been needing this for a while. Just look at how fast you got wet." Jane said pulling her fingers out of Fang's panties and showing her the sticky juices stuck to them. "Would you like to taste yourself?" the stripper said while putting a finger up to her mouth and licking some of the sticky fluid. Then she stuck her finger in Fang's mouth rather forcefully, moving it in and out. Thoroughly cleaning the warm juice off of her finger. Jane attempted to kiss the opposite woman but she refused. Thinking nothing of it she moved down kissing and biting at her neck for the third time while slowly moving downwards.

"Doesn't this make you one of them?" Fang said in between moans.

"No, not even close. Your the first person I've had sex with in a while actually. Most of what I do is dancing. That's why I'm the only disease-free stripper in this club." Jane said. She pulled the pulsian woman's tank top up over her head without much difficulty. In a flash her hands were groping Fang's medium-sized tits while biting on her ear lobe.

Something inside the tan woman's brain clicked. This didn't feel right. That wasn't to say she didn't want it, but sex with anyone but Lightning just wasn't the same. In a way, it felt like she was betraying the sergeant. In a sudden change, all sexual gratification that she was getting from this disappeared. In its place, disgust. Every touch she received made her shiver, as if her body were trying to fight the invading hands. In a flash, very roughly, she shoved Jane off of her and threw her tank top over her head. Without a word she opened and shut the door, leaving the club as quick as she could.

She made a bee line for the shop while fighting the immense urge to cry her eyes out. Fang was tough on the outside, but as far as emotions went, she was probably the most sensitive kind. The pulsian huntress made her way into the shop quietly to find Dante asleep with his feet up on his desk and snoring very loudly. She crept upstairs and into the bedroom her and Lightning shared. The sergeant was asleep, the sound of her soft breathing penetrating the stillness of the night.

Fang then began to drink herself piss drunk. In a matter of minutes the bottle was finished, she through it out the window ten to fifteen feet away so Lightning wouldn't find out. Then after this she buried her head into the pillow and let her tears go.

**End.**

**Well, that was a fun chapter to write, and lately the inspiration for this story just keeps on coming. Hopefully it never goes away! I like updating quickly! Oh and I don't think I'll be getting back to Hope, Lucera, etc. for a bit.. Planning on giving Nero a chapter. It may change though so don't hold me to it.**

**I feel like the ending of the chapter was a bit rushed, but other than that I'm very happy with this! The stripper Jane may make another appearance too.**

**Overall, read and review and thanks!**

**-NMD15**


	9. Complicated (Guess Who's Back?)

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Nine

Lightning cracked her eyes open slowly, clearing her brain of the metaphorical dust that came with just waking up. Commanding her brain to send signals to her arms, she stretched in a way that you would call cute if you weren't afraid of losing your head. The sergeant continued to stretch until her hands hit something solid. Turning on her side, she noticed Fang laying on her stomach sound asleep with her head buried under a pillow. Lightning felt a wave of guilt slam into her heart with tremendous force. Doing something that she would've never considered a few days prior, Lightning took her hand and rubbed the pulsian woman's back. Taking it a step further, she crawled over and laid her head on Fang's back. It's not like she would never notice. Fang was a very heavy sleeper. She relished the scent of the hunter. A spicy, feral mixture of scents that she had no doubt gotten from her homeland.

Lightning slowly and painfully remembered what happened in the bathroom the last night. Another mile-high wave of guilt slammed into her heart at full force. She put her hand to her chest in a hope to stabilize her frantic heartbeat before she died of a heart arrhythmia. Still, at this point it felt like she was drowning in her guilt. The sergeant felt horrible for stopping Fang's advances last night. Partly because she enjoyed them. Wanted them, even. But something inside her couldn't let her do those things quite yet. The pink-haired woman actually wanted to _be _with Fang before she did anything sexual. It didn't make much sense to her right now, but it was enough to put her off a little bit. Removing her head from the tan woman's back, she laid her head back onto one of the pillows.

Then aside from Lightning's emotional turmoil, there ached a desire to know just where Fang had went last night. Lightning scowled to herself. _The fuck is wrong with me? Am I getting jealous? _she thought, disappointed that Fang had begun to occupy her mind more and more. Shaking her head she groaned loudly, getting even more frustrated that her normally clear head was now in millions of tiny pieces. And even worse still, her mind would probably stay that way until she confessed her feelings to Fang. Not that that would ever happen... Her thoughts were suddenly disturbed as the woman next to her began to stir.

A very drowsy Fang pulled her head out from under the pillow. Her hair was sticking up in several places and her eyes still looked tired. And upon closer inspection, they looked red and puffy. Had she been crying? Apparently, the drowsy native had noticed Lightnings scrutinizing gaze and quickly said,

"Sorry about the bed, it seemed like a better alternative than the floor" Fang said.

The sergeant wrinkled her brow before saying "Don't worry about it." Now she knew something was definitely off. Gone was the energy Fang had when she usually spoke to her and gone also was her nickname "sunshine" A nickname that contradicted Lightnings personality in every way. Also a nickname that the pinkette had secretly come to love. Shaking off the discomfort, she quickly cut to the chase. "Where did you go last night Fang?" The sari-clad huntress slowly replied,

"We can talk about this later, yeah? I got a major headache."

"No, Fang. Your clearly avoiding the question. Tell me." Lightning said in a demanding voice.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." Fang said in a slightly irritated voice.

"Well, I do." Lightning fired back.

"I don't!" Fang said raising her voice. Then she stormed out of the room with Lightning right behind her. The two went down the stairs, totally ignoring the now awake Dante. The pulsian huntress went out one of the shop doors, slamming that as well. That was when the sergeant thought it best to let her cool off.

"What's with her?" Dante said from his desk, feet up as usual.

"I don't know." The pinkette actually did know, but telling Dante of all people probably wasn't a good idea. Putting a hand to her face she mumbled "Sorry about waking you up."

In response to this, Dante leaned back even further in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "It's alright. I can't sleep for shit nowadays anyway." Suddenly he let his chair fall to the floor loudly. He leaned forward and said, "I need to talk to you." in a rarely serious voice.

Given that he was all-business the sergeant decided to humor him. "What about?" she said crossing her arms in front of her chest.

The white-haired demon hunter sighed before saying, "You remember Nero right? The one who..." he trailed off, clearly trying to word this carefully.

Lightning stopped him. "Yeah, I remember him" The dull pain below her left boob was a reminder of him. While her mobility wasn't impaired, it still hurt like hell to touch and probably would be like that for a few weeks.

"Well, that punk is an associate of mine." Dante said airquoting around the word 'associate' "He's in Fortuna right now, looking for leads and questioning witnesses. Although, I'm not sure if he'll find anything on your kitty. The people of that town are anti-demon freaks, so chances are any traces are long gone. The only hope the kid'll have is if he's got some Meow Mix or catnip with him." The demon hunter chuckled. Though Lightning didn't seem to get Dante's brand of humor.

"Alright, well let us know if you find anything." Lightning said. She then walked outside and stood on the battered porch of the shop. It was a nice day, not nearly as hot as it had been. If not for the circumstances this was one of those mornings where she would've gone out for a jog. Resolving that physical activity was a good idea, she paced the outside perimeter of the shop, taking in the dull grey-blue color of the wood and all of its imperfections. When she came to the alley that the shop was next to, something shiny caught her eye. It was a whiskey bottle of some sort.

That would explain Fang's tiredness, her headache, and every other thing wrong with her. Though it wasn't a good to point fingers. Dante liked to drink. Her curiosity peaked and she went around the shop and went inside. "Um... When you drink do you ever throw your bottles outside?"

"Yeah, why?" The demon hunter asked.

"Well, I found a whiskey bottle outside on the side of the shop." Lightning said pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What kind was it?" Dante asked.

"It said something like Hot Damn on the bottle?" the pinkette answered.

"Nah, that shit's nasty. It sure wasn't me then." Suddenly he caught on. "You don't think that she...?"

Lightning finished his sentence with a sharp, "That's _exactly _what I think."

...

Nero was getting aggravated. He'd been searching for almost two hours and had come up with next to nothing. The only solid lead he had was that there was a suspicious person present during the time the demon attacked. That was it. And he couldn't settle for that. Not only because Dante would rag on him like crazy, but also because it was a pain to get into the city in the first place. The new Order of the Sword leader, a man by the name of Jager, was adamant not to let him get into the city because of his connection to the Savior incident. It took the better half of forty five minutes just to convince him that he meant no harm. Then on top of that Nero was to keep his bringer out of sight.

_How's that for a thank you? _He thought his brain simmering with frustration. The young demon slayer saved their asses and now he gets exiled and treated like trash? Yeah, it was true. Nero was exiled shortly after the theocracy reformed. Their lame excuse was they didn't want any vestiges of the Savior incident (including him) because it would leave the general public in a state of unrest. Although to soften the blow so to speak, the Order honorably discharged him and gave him a decent sum of money to hold him and Kyrie over until he found another job. It was probably the most morally right thing the Order had ever done. Though they had a _lot _to catch up on as far as the right and wrong scale went.

The city that Nero and Kyrie had relocated to was called Ardem and it was a suburb of Capulet. Though unlike Capulet, which was dirty and a crime magnet, Ardem was like paradise. It's streets where always clean, no trash to speak of. Crime was next to none, and even if there was any, the reliable police department would take care of it. True, demons popped up here or there, but they were minimal. And the best part of the whole thing was, even though Nero still pegged this on the 'too good to be true' scale, they accepted he was a demon. The entire suburb of Ardem heard about the Savior incident and accepted him for it. In fact, they'd embraced it. As soon as he moved into town the mayor, known as Rembert, handed him a job on the police force. Yup, he was a cop. The proof was hanging around his neck. Right about now he wished he was back home instead of on this wild goose chase.

Nero walked up to a kid that looked like a druggie. Shaky, check. Frazzled hair, check. Paranoid, check. Yup, definitely a druggie. "Hey kid, did you see anyone weird around here during the demon attack?" In response to the confrontation the kid ran. _Damn, he must've seen my badge _Nero thought. "Gotta remember not to leave that out in the open." The young cop muttered and then gave chase. Running after the druggie wasn't easy considering all the people he mowed down, making Nero have to alter his course every few moments to avoid colliding with a bystander. "Stop, damn it!" Then the frantic kid turned into an alley. Turning on the alley Nero cursed. It was narrow and there were big, blocky trashcans obstructing his way. Getting an idea, he uncovered his Bringer and extended it toward one of the walls, clawing into it with his devil arms sharp talons. Then he shortened it and bounded over the trashcans. _Damn I love this thing. _Nero thought as he smirked.

As the young cop continued the chase he noticed they were getting into the industrial part of Fortuna. He also noticed how fast his quarry actually was. This was shameful on the front that Nero was a half demon and he was being beaten by a bony kid. If Dante ever found out he'd never hear the end of it. _The boys back at the station would laugh it up too _He thought. Then, events took a turn for the weird when Nero was led into a frozen meat warehouse. "What the hell?" he muttered. It was cold inside and there were metal racks sky high with boxes on top as far as the eye could see.

"I brought him, now gimme my coke damn it!" The druggie said in a whiny, timid voice.

"Now." An ice-cold, bone-chilling voice said. "Your part in this play is over."

"Wha-? What are you talking about man? Gimme my drugs, hand 'em over!"

Nero's Bringer began to thrum violently. "Get out of the way jackass!"

"Die."

Suddenly the druggies head was severed from his shoulders. Blood spurted from the stump even after it hit the ground.

"What a pawn. Humans are such idiotic creatures."

"Who in the hell are you!?" Nero yelled, drawing his sword. He didn't know who this person was but he did know they were fast. Deadly fast. One mistake could very well cost him his head, just like the punk kid seconds before. "Answer me, goddamn it!"

"You should hold your temper. It may..." The mystery person laughed frigidly. "...Cost you your head. As for who I am, you'll find out soon enough"

Then suddenly, Nero's legs were swept out from under him. He landed on the cold concrete with a hard 'oof', his lungs having had the air within them expelled. The Red Queen skittered away harmlessly.

"I can't believe your the one he picked. One who can't even use his own sword, let alone mine. But I'll let you keep it for now, it should remind _him _just who he's dealing with."

"Who are you talking about!" Nero shouted from his pathetic state on the floor.

"Fools shouldn't speak." The mystery person said as he stabbed Nero with his own sword.  
And then he was gone.

The young cop groaned. "The boys'll never let this go." he said as he half-heartedly chuckled. He looked down at his sword in his chest. Nero touched the cold, black steel of his sword. "You like the taste of my blood, girl? I did name you the Red Queen after all" In response the blade thrummed and warmed slightly. "Well, sorry but you can't have any more, I have more important things to do than let you feast on my blood." No response emitted from the blade other than purring at its masters touch. Grabbing the blade by the hilt, he pulled it out with little difficulty. He muttered under his breath.

"That was a shallow wound. Bastard must've done it on purpose." Standing up, he began to walk out, intending to leave the body to Fortuna's guards. That was when he heard the voice again, this time from somewhere above him.

"Ask Dante when he wants to schedule the reunion. I've got quite a bash planned" The cold voice said.

**End.**

**BOOM! Yes you savvy DMC players (Including myself) should know who that is! Man, I'm liking where this is going, this is going to be a long story too. I'm guessing hopefully around twenty chapters at least, maybe more, maybe a lot more. About Nero's sword, there's one part in DMC4 when they portray it being alive. Mission two I believe. I wanted to incorporate that. I'm even thinking about writing a one-shot on how the Red Queen came to be.  
**

**Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter length. Couldn't think of any ways to flesh it out any more.**

**I hope I got into character decently. I'm mostly worried about Vergil's. Let me know how I did. Also, Fang and Light will realize and accept their feelings soon, so don't worry!**

**Thanks for reading, REVIEW please!**

**-NMD15**


	10. Some Hearts Need Each Other

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Ten

-Hope's Dream-

The skinny teen woke again in this blindingly white dream world. It was the same as before. Light in all directions, with no indication of making any progress as far as moving forward. Once again, Hope took a few experimental steps as if moving too fast would throw him off of a cliff. _Why am I here again? _He thought. The last time he was here he saw his mother. Testing an idea he timidly said, "Mom? Mom, are you here?" The white-haired teenager didn't have to wait long for a reply. Almost immediately after he had spoken, his mother's voice rang out one again. Finding him in the light just as it had before.

"I'm over here, Hope."

Carefully walking toward his mother's voice, he found her standing straight with her hands clasped together and a huge smile on her face. "Hi, Hope." His mother said, as if they weren't standing in the middle of a dream inside the teen's head. "Have a seat." She said as she gesticulated to two white chairs that had appeared out of nowhere.

Not really sure exactly what to say or do, Hope did as his mother had said and took a seat. Although he couldn't shake the weird vibe of their last tearful encounter. The image of his mother bawling was more than enough of a deterrent. He hoped the shock would wear off soon enough.

"So, Hope. I see you got yourself a pretty girlfriend now," Nora said teasing her son with a mischievous glint in her eye. Surely his bashful reaction would be something to see. She certainly wasn't disappointed.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Hope said as the usual light pink blush stained his normally pale complexion. He put a pair of thin fingers to his forehead. "I'm not even sure if I'm in the right mind for a girlfriend right now. Every time I look at her my eyes drift to her body. I feel ashamed every time." The white-haired teenager muttered truthfully. He couldn't stomach a relationship with someone that revolved on only physical attraction, where's the love and communication in that? It may not look like it on the outside but Hope thought about these topics on a regular basis. Most of the time on a lazy Sunday afternoon lying in his bed. To avoid them he usually cleaned his room or found something else to do. That's why his room was always spotless.

Placing two fingers under her chin, Nora stared at her son as if inspecting a rare species of animal. She then gently smiled. "That's very modest of you Hope, but being modest isn't going to get me my grandchildren!"

"But mom, can you tell me how can I stop looking at her as if she's a piece of meat?" Hope asked, praying that his mother had the solution to his teenage dilemma.

"No Hope. I can't. But the truth of the matter is, what your doing is normal. Every guy does it." She then walked over in front of his chair and put her hands on her hips. "You don't think your father married me for just for my personality did you?"

The white-haired boys face turned red as a tomato and he started shuddering awkwardly. _I think I may have just been scarred for life. _He thought through a clouded head.

In response to his reaction, Nora laughed. "Hope your too innocent." Then she got on her knees in front of him and grabbed his gloved hands in hers. "Just know that everything your doing is right, okay?" She then gave her son a hug.

As soon as Hope felt his mother's embrace he clung onto it as if it were a lifeline. He didn't want to let go. Not in any means of the word. The teenager had just randomly started seeing his mother out of the blue. Every time he woke up there was a chance he'd never see her again. Then he struggled to speak. "M-M-Mom?"

"Yes, Hope?"

"I-I don't want to let go." And then there they went. Waterworks and all. In a matter of seconds Hope was turned from a fifteen-year-old boy into a sniveling child.

In response to her son's tears, she cradled his head between the crook of her neck and let him cry. "Just be happy I'm here on good terms, Hope."

The crying teen had no idea what she meant at that time and he really didn't care. The end of the dream came like it had before, the light became insanely bright and then began to fade out. But it was much better than last time because Hope was in his mother's arms.

...

Hope woke up with a start, sitting up from where he was laying on the ground. His breathing was fast and shallow and his face was covered in sweat from his weird and disturbing dream. The white-haired teenager saw his mother yet again. There had to be a reason for this weird occurrence, but at the moment he didn't feel like pondering it. Hope looked around the cave and then his eyes landed on Lucera, who this morning had decided to keep her distance. Although in a notion that puzzled Hope, she still let him use her trench as a blanket.

The white-haired teen laid back down. This morning was much warmer than the previous and judging by this, one could guess it would get very hot later in the day. Although the sighting of very dark cumulonimbus clouds warranted worry of thunderstorms. Taking his eyes off the clouds, he stared up at the cave's ceiling. It was brown and rough. It disappeared somewhere further along into the darkness of the unexplored cave. _I wonder how big this cave actually is? _Hope shook his head at how his brain was jumping from different trains of thought. None of them mattered either.

Finally he came upon a subject that actually did matter. His brand. He put his hand up to his face and removed the handkerchief from his wrist. Silently hoping that his brand had progressed slowly. As soon as he caught a glimpse of it, he sighed. The eye hadn't opened. Not even a slit. Still, Hope worried. Time wasn't something they had generous amounts of. How long would it be? Until they all lost and turned into Cieth? The teenager growled to himself in a way that was unlike him. "How can I be so negative?" Then, not-so-suddenly thunder boomed across the Archytle Steppe, effectively drowning out his sentence in an excess of sound.

Then, Lucera's body stirred. She sat up and grumbled to herself. "I'm cold and its raining. What a _fucking _way to wake up." She pulled out a cigarette and a lighter from between her breasts. Last night had not gone well for her. Hope's rejection of her had stung. But ironically that wasn't why she was upset. After all, it was to be expected that the teenager would reject her. He'd only known her for a few days. In actuality, she was mad at herself for making a move on him so soon. Even now, the thought of it made her chest tighten and her blood boil, white hot. _Damn it. Why couldn't I just take a step back? _Lucera thought chastising herself. She spared a glance at Hope. He was staring at the ceiling, apparently in thought.

Lucera lit the cigarette and took a hit. "Tomorrow we'll go back."

Hope's white eyebrows perked up at the thought. This was a good opportunity to start a conversation. The only problem was that he didn't know where to begin...

The red-haired girl opposite of him took this as a sign that he didn't want to talk. The two just sat in the cave in a very awkward silence with the thunder booming in the background, accenting the already gloomy mood. Soon enough, the silence settled down on Lucera's shoulders like a weight. Her throat began constricting and she finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry for making a move on you yesterday!" It felt good to have that out, but now Hope was looking at her weirdly.

"Hehe, sorry could you slow down a bit? I couldn't understand all that." He said while scratching the back of his head and smiling nervously, a pink tinge of embarrassment staining his cheeks.

"I said I-I... I'm sorry." Lucera finally choked out. A few tears and a slight whimper escaped from her after she'd said it.

The white-haired teenager across from her was taken aback. He then quickly dashed over to where she was sitting with her trench coat in hand. Hope then wrapped it around the red-haired girl's shoulders. Surprising even himself, he embraced Lucera, wrapping his arms around her neck and shoulders. He then wiped her tears away. Sitting with her seated between his legs he said, "I'm sorry too. You just... took me by surprise. That's all..." The white-haired teen said trailing off.

Lucera tried to keep her breathing under control. Hope's arm touching her neck sent little lightning bolts dancing along her skin. It was impossible for her to keep a clear head with Hope so close. She swallowed what felt like lead. "Why did you storm off then?" Lucera already had an idea of what he would say, but she wanted to hear it anyways.

"Well..." He began nervously. "Girls have never really been my forte. I'm one of those nerds in school that doesn't say anything. Just gets his work done. The thought of being intimate with anyone, it scares me. The closest to intimate I've ever gotten is when Lightning and I took a bath together in the Sulyya Springs." Hope's face turned bright red as he remembered the memory.

"Who's Lightning again?" Lucera asked, not remembering if Hope had told her about this person or not.

"She's one of the two woman that went missing from our group." The teen said.

"Who's the other one?"

"A woman named Fang."

"So what are these two women like?" The red-haired girl asked, not minding for one second how nosy she sounded. Hope's explanation of his 'girl problems' was proof enough that he didn't like either of the two women like _that. _But she just wanted to make sure.

Hope took a deep breath and then sighed deeply. "That's a long story but I guess its the least I can do." He took a deep breath. "Well, Lightning...she's a bit rough around the edges. Her parents died when she was little and after that she became cold and she closed herself off from the world to keep from getting hurt. With her, getting close to someone is rare. Even now, she wears an invisible mask over her feelings. Her sister Serah, the one she's closest to can't even get inside her emotional wall. That's why I'm happy that she lets me know what's up every once in a while." The teen said while donning a slight smile.

"Anyways, she's also very intolerant of any sort of heroics. There's a guy in our group that does things like that a lot. His name is Snow and coincidentally he's also Serah's fiance. Since he knows Lightning can't stand him, he usually avoids doing something stupid." He said. "Sometimes it doesn't help though." The teen said, gaining a wry smile.

"What about Fang?" Lucera asked.

"Fang... I don't really know much about her because I don't talk with her much. From what I can tell she's a practical joker. She's very tough... And scary." Hope said in a fearful tone that was somewhat comical.

The opposite girl laughed. "Hope?" Lucera asked in a timid voice that was pretty unlike her. At least as far as Hope had known.

"W-What's your opinion on me?" The red-haired girl said tripping over her sentence. She hoped his opinion of her would be good. Lucera didn't know why she cared so much about what this boy had thought of her, she just did. Somehow Hope had made an impression on her in the short time he'd been with her. Maybe she was going too fast, but she wanted him to be hers before anyone else got him.

The question caught Hope off guard. He blushed. Looking down at her lap, trying to think of what to say. Hope noticed that her nails were painted Halloween orange. "Ummm... Hehe. See I'm not exactly good at this stuff." The white-haired teen said a little embarrassed that his mind couldn't come up with anything half decent to say.

"Oh... I see." Lucera said, sounding disheartened.

Hope quickly attempted damage control. "N-N-No. It's not bad at all. I just don't know what to say..." He got an idea and hoped it wouldn't bite him in the arse later. It took him a moment to grow a pair big enough to do it, but he did. "Just give me time to think about it, okay?" Hope then kissed her on the cheek. Seeing her awestruck expression made him almost wish he hadn't done it. Her expression turned from awe to the deepest blush Hope had ever seen.

Time had stopped for Lucera the moment Hope's soft, almost feminine lips touched her cheek. The red-haired demoness felt tingles on the back of her neck. Then the feeling moved downward, into her cheeks turning them bright pink. Another feeling blossomed in her chest. Happiness. Hope felt the same about her (more or less) as she felt about him. Lucera then smirked inwardly. _He's gonna pay for making me blush like that! _

"Uh? Something wrong?" Hope said, confused by her silence. _I hope she didn't take that the wrong way, _

"No, I'm fine." She answered back with her usual confidence. In a daring move, even for her, she took Hope's gloved hands and wrapped them around her waist, enjoying the feeling.

At first, the white-haired teen felt uncomfortable, but then he realized how nice it felt. He laid his head on Lucera's shoulder and they both fell to sleep together. The rain had since slowed to a soft _patter patter _on the stone, leaving no traces that the ferocious thunder had even been there.

**End.**

**Sorry for taking so long on this guys. I wasn't busy persay but I didn't really have the time to sit down and write this all in one sitting, so I've been working on this bit by bit.**

**I know this doesn't quite give the story momentum like the last chapter but it needed to happen. Things will be picking up on Hope's end soon, so please sit tight!**

**Also, I know I'm not consistent with my writing, but its always changing so give it time. I appreciate my two devoted reviewers! Sorry, guys. Too busy to bother looking up your names :d.**


	11. Some Hearts Need Each Other Part II

Unseen and Undone

Chapter Eleven

Fang cursed. It hadn't been very long since Lightning had immediately questioned her about what she'd done the night before. Not long before she stormed off without confessing her feelings to Lightning. Again. How long was she going to keep avoiding her feelings? Playing this game was painful, she wanted to confess to the sergeant. She really did. But that meant confessing what she had done. Her total and utter betrayal of what her heart had told her. All for some whimsical satisfaction to sate her libido. _I can't keep doing this. I have to tell her. _Fang thought steeling her resolve for what she was going to do. Though she had to do it quickly. It felt as if every drop of rain that hit her shoulders sapped a little bit of her shaky confidence.

Making her mind up she speed walked back in the direction of the shop. One of Fang's signature, determined smirks played on her face once again. She spoke to herself. "Well me, its good to be back." Her confidence grew with every step until she was absolutely dead set on her plan to tell her Sunshine how she felt about her. Call it intuition but the pulsian woman had a strange feeling that things would be okay. But just in case, she prepared her cheek for one of Lightning's famous slaps. _Etro knows last time I almost lost my head. _Fang thought. _Good times, good times. _She smirked. "I'm coming, love."

Little did she know there was a blue-clothed figure up above her perched on top of a building. He looked down on her with his cold eyes. The same eyes that had watched his own mother die while holding his younger brother in his arms. The same eyes that had seen the darkness of the world and had not lived to tell the tale. Vergil followed the woman's every move. "So this is one of the woman that Dante is sheltering. I'd like to get rid of both of them now, before they become a nuisance. But... _He _made me swear I would keep them alive." He shook his head angrily. "Know this Ransom. Once I get rid of my brother and his pets. Your next."

Vergil gripped the O-katana until his knuckles turned white. "I've suddenly changed my mind. It's time to pay that lippy brat a visit." The blue-clad demon slayer spared himself a knowing smirk. "If I'm going to battle my brother for the fourth time, I may as well stick to tradition." He chuckled to himself. "Otherwise, he'd have a fit." A presence of a person interrupted his moment.

"Hey man, your not supposed to be up here its private property." Said one human off to his left. The cold slayer swatted his katana in the air as if he were trying to swat a fly.

"Get down off there or I'm going to have to call security!" The man continued on.

Vergil slowly lowered his sword. "Be gracious, you shall get to die without knowing the fear of death." Then in a sharp _click! _The sword was sheathed.

"What are you-?" The man stopped mid-sentence as his head came slowly off of his shoulders. It rolled around on the ground for a few moments before coming to a stop, the expression of confusion forever pasted on the man's face.

"There is nothing that waits longer for man than a cruel and painful death." Vergil said as he walked away from his most recent crime with his overcoat billowing behind him.

**...**

Lightning was doing something she'd hardly ever done in her entire life. Sitting around doing nothing. She'd asked Dante about anything to do and he'd said they could go to Love Planet but the pink-haired sergeant quickly declined his offer. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to see Dante at a strip club. Never mind, she didn't want to know. An involuntary shudder passed through her at the thought. For an hour or so she sat and looked at the once-white, now yellow, roof looking for any sort of way to take her mind off of her boredom.

Every once in a while her thoughts drifted to Fang, wondering why the Pulsian woman couldn't just tell her that she needed a drink. Lightning's eyes suddenly pitched downward. Now she was starting to sound intrusive. The sergeant rolled over on her stomach. She hadn't meant to sound like that, she just wished that if Fang needed to talk she'd talk to her and not the bottom of a bottle. Listening to herself, Lightning realized how absurd she sounded. About a week ago she would never be saying things like this. _Snow had better not find out. If he does, I'll snap every fucking vertebrae in his_ neck.

As if on cue, Fang walked into the room frantically and shut the door. With her back and hands to the door she said, "Sunshine, we need to talk." The pulsian took in more air than she needed because right now it felt like she were breathing through a straw. The pressing weight of anxiety on her chest increased as she once again built up the courage to confess to Lightning. She sat on the bed and looked down at her hands. They were shaking violently. "I'll tell you everything. Just promise not to hate me okay?" Fang said in an unusually vulnerable voice.

The pink-haired soldier wrinkled her brow in confusion. _What is she talking about that's got her so afraid? _"Fang..." Lightning said trailing off. "What are you talking about?" Seeing the raven-haired woman this way unnerved Lightning, if only a little. True, Fang hadn't been acting like herself over the past day but to see her this vulnerable was unprecedented. She crawled on all fours towards the end of the bed and sat down next to the pulsian woman. Hesitantly, she slid an arm around her waist. "Can I ask you something first?" Lightning said gently, leaving no indication that she was mad earlier.

"Why not?" Fang said with a sad smile.

"Instead of drinking yourself piss drunk why didn't you just talk to me?" The sergeant said gently but at the same time her voice displayed a quality indicating she wouldn't be shaken off until she got her answer. Lightning waited for the Pulsian woman to answer her, which didn't come until about a minute later.

"I'm ashamed of myself." Fang mumbled in a voice so quiet you could hardly hear it.

"Ashamed of what?" Lightning said.

"Something I did that I never should've done."

The pink-haired woman wrinkled her brow in annoyance. The opposite woman was obviously avoiding the question. "Fang, how am I supposed to help if you won't tell me what's wrong?" Lightning said her voice radiating irritation.

Suddenly something within Fang snapped. Gripping Lightning's wrists, Fang adjusted their position until she was lying on top of Lightning. "Fine, you wanna know what's wrong? Huh?" Taking a breathe, she said "I'll tell ya." The woman underneath her was in shock, not quite knowing what to do next. "Last night, I was horny as a fucking rabbit. So I went to Love Planet, bought me a bottle of whiskey and... there was this girl. We were so close but-" Fang finally lost it.

Tears flowed from her eyes in a constant stream. "When she was on top of me, I just couldn't do it. If I did, I would've felt like I was betraying you."

On the inside Lightning melted. The combination of the raven-haired woman admitting she liked her and the fact that they were in such a suggestive position send goosebumps along her skin. She breathed out heavily feeling as if the oxygen in her lungs weighed a thousand pounds. The grip Fang had on her wrists was tight enough to snap them clean in two, but instead of hurting her, it was turning her on. Majorly, "Fang..."

"You know what? To hell with it. Lightning fucking Farron? I want you." The lance-wielder said with force.

Feeling as if her heart had been liberated, she quickly replied "I want you too Fang. More than anything in the whole damn world. At first, I thought I was crazy. Which I might be, but I realized things have a funny way of working out. I mean, as if you couldn't tell with us being trapped in a parallel universe and all." Lightning said with a cocky smirk showing on her face.

Fang smiled back. "Smart ass. I'm gonna make you pay for that." she whispered going down on the woman below her intending to seal the deal with a kiss."

"Lightning, Fang!" Dante yelled from downstairs.

"Oooh, bad timing." The blue-clad woman said.

"I'm gonna kill him one day..." Lightning growled.

As Fang got up she said, "Oh Lightning you shouldn't talk like that around me. Seeing you all mad gets my knickers in a twist." She offered her hands to the other woman.

The sergeant took them and pulled herself up. "You know what turns me on? When you use a bunch of words that I don't understand." She said in a dismal tone.

The Pulsian woman slung an arm around the opposite woman's neck. "Your such a buzz kill. You know that?"

Unslinging Fang's arm from around her neck she said, "So I've been told. I've only heard it from Snow a thousand times." Suddenly she stopped the two from walking and said in a dead serious tone, "Dante does not find out about this? Got it?"

Fang mock saluted her in return and said, "Aye aye major!" Her almost always-present smirk appeared over her features. "Geez, Sunshine, lighten up." She said as she playfully punched her in the arm.

The pink-haired woman winced a little. That punch had smarted just a bit. She rubbed her arm. It was no wonder Fang was always the best Commando in their group. Her strength rivaled even Snow's. And that, was quite a scary thought. What would she be like when she was mad? She was shaken out of her thoughts by a tan hand waving in front of her face.

"Yo, Lightning? You in there?"

"Stop it." Lightning said agitated.

"The next time your gonna space out let me know, yeah?" Fang said.

The two woman made their way downstairs. Dante was sitting in his chair feet up as usual with his face in a magazine, the young man Lightning knew as Nero was sitting on the couch with his hands resting on his knees and a permanent scowl etched on his face, and then there was a woman that neither of the two recognized that was standing against the jukebox in the corner of the shop.

Dante put his feet down from the table and sat up straight. "Ah, girls. Nero here, is going to tell us what he found in Fortuna. And Lady over there is going to tell us what happened to your kitty cat."

"Can I make some coffee first?" Lightning asked. In order for her to think clearly she'd need some caffeine to clear her head.

"Don't have any." Dante said shaking his head. "Do I look like the type of guy that drinks coffee?"

"I've got some. Just let me go out and get it real quick." The mystery lady by the jukebox had said. Within a few moments Lightning had a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. "I originally brought it for that jerk over there." She said pointing to Dante, who was currently shrugging his shoulders and grinning like an idiot. "But apparently _he _doesn't drink coffee. Of course I should have known." The mystery lady sighed like she was dealing with a finicky child. "My name is Lady by the way."

The pink-haired sergeant responded with a curt "Lightning." This woman seemed to be likeable. And she shared the same annoyance for Dante it seemed. Overall, it may just be her brain in its mushed state, but she liked this woman so far. Of course, the coffee in her hands was a big factor. She shook hands with Lady and was surprised by her strong grip.

"And you are?" Lady said inquiring to Fang.

"Yun Fang, You can just call me Fang for short."

"Nice to meet you both." Lady said with a smile.

"Can we get this whole thing moving already? I've got a dinner with Kyrie in two hours and ain't no way in hell that I'm gonna miss it." Nero piped up hotly from the couch.

"Alright, alright keep your pants on kid." Dante said smirking.

"Goddammit, how many times I have to tell your old ass, I'm not a kid!" Nero practically growled.

"And I'm not old, you damn obnoxious punk." The Son of Sparda said with his cocky smirk still in place.

"You wanna fight?" Nero said, nose to nose with the opposite demon hunter.

"Wouldn't be much of a fight against your slow ass." Dante said.

"I beg to differ." Nero said, with a smile on his face.

This, ladies and gents, is where the two fought like they always do. Only Dante was right when saying it wasn't much of a fight. Nero swung his fists wildly, causing Dante to either duck or parry them and then he landed a few jabs of own. Nero in turn only got even more mad and started getting worse. The three ladies in the room watched this display with apparent interest, except for Lady who seemed like she'd seen it too many times. She then with some difficulty pulled the other two woman to the front of the shop. "It's best to let them have their room. Things tend to get out of hand." Just as she said that, the cue ball from the pool table when flying straight towards Lightning's face. She ducked quickly, not missing the fact that the cue ball easily sailed through the door.

Comically and at the same time, Fang and Lightning scooted next to Lady and said, "Are they like this all the time?"

"Unfortunately." Lady said putting two fingers up to the bridge of her nose.

The fight ended with Dante's boot on the younger slayer's chest. "You cooled off yet kid?"

Nero smirked at the memory the position brought him. "Just like when we first met."

"Yeah, and you've gotten a lot better since then and I still whooped your ass." The older slayer said, offering his hand to the younger.

Taking it, Nero said, "You know? You're on the fast track to being arrested."

"What's my charge?"

"Ten counts of being a total asshole." Nero said.

"That's a little harsh don't ya think?" Dante said, while he kicked his desk back. It somersaulted a few times before landing in its previous place.

"Not with the way you've been acting."

"Alright, gather 'round boys and girls. Let's get this thing started." Dante said.

**End.**

**I know, hell of a stupid way to end a chapter. Sorry for the late update you guys. This thing sat three fourths of the way finished before I decided to write the rest of it. The chapter was going to be longer, but I think its best I got an update out.**

**Yeah, I know. Fang and Lightning's 'click' in their relationship wasn't as intense as I promised, but I decided to take a different approach. I have some things planned later, you won't be disappointed.**

**Once again, its looking like we won't get back to Hope or Lucera for another chapter or two. Overall, a decent chapter I think. Thanks guys. Read and review.**

**-NMD15**


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